Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast - Check Scammer Explains How To Beat The Banks | Charlie Hartman
Episode Date: November 28, 2024Charlie Hartman shares his life of crime on the run. Connect with Charlie Hartman: https://www.tiktok.com/@imcharliehartman?_t=8n5y1phlTm2&_r=1 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMhHySYEfrJdD37Pq7...TYL1A https://www.instagram.com/imcharliehartman?igsh=d3E4NjgyMmkwNWh2&utm_source=qr Get 50% sitewide for a limited time. Just visit https://GhostBed.com/cox and use code COX at checkout. Do you want to be a guest? Fill out the form https://forms.gle/5H7FnhvMHKtUnq7k7 Send me an email here: insidetruecrime@gmail.com Do you extra clips and behind the scenes content? Subscribe to my Patreon: https://patreon.com/InsideTrueCrime 📧Sign up to my newsletter to learn about Real Estate, Credit, and Growing a Youtube Channel: https://mattcoxcourses.com/news 🏦Raising & Building Credit Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/credit 📸Growing a YouTube Channel Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/yt 🏠Make money with Real Estate Course: https://mattcoxcourses.com/re Follow me on all socials! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insidetruecrime/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@matthewcoxtruecrime Do you want a custom painting done by me? Check out my Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/coxpopart Listen to my True Crime Podcasts anywhere: https://anchor.fm/mattcox Check out my true crime books! Shark in the Housing Pool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0851KBYCF Bent: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BV4GC7TM It's Insanity: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KFYXKK8 Devil Exposed: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TH1WT5G Devil Exposed (The Abridgment): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1070682438 The Program: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0858W4G3K Bailout: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bailout-matthew-cox/1142275402 Dude, Where's My Hand-Grenade?: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXNFHBDF/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1678623676&sr=1-1 Checkout my disturbingly twisted satiric novel! Stranger Danger: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSWQP3WX If you would like to support me directly, I accept donations here: Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/MattCox69 Cashapp: $coxcon69
Transcript
Discussion (0)
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Taking these homeless guys, cleaning them up
We're just getting routing numbers
and accounting numbers, going from Vegas
all the way up to Reno.
The plan was make a bunch of money with Nick
and I was going to go disappear.
You get the adrilling in Russia more and more and more and more.
I can't be stopped.
Cops just surround me.
That's a PBL.
Okay, what's a PBL?
Punishable by life.
Oh, shit.
Did you get like getting trouble when you were a kid?
Oh, man.
I was, dude, I was like the best kid,
Boy Scout, everything.
You know that thing, Matt, when he talked about like,
oh, I started my crime wife.
off when I was, like, stealing candy and stuff.
Right.
Like, mine came from a Christian bookstore.
Okay.
So what ends up happening is my aunt, who's a divine Christian, was like, hey, do me
a favor.
I'm like, 14.
She's like, take this back to the Christian bookstore and return it for me and just get
the money back.
The guy knows who I am, no big deal.
So I'm like, I go do it, and I go return and get her the money back and everything.
And then, like, a couple weeks later, I noticed a dollar general.
I'm like 14.
I'm out walking around with my friends.
I see the same books in the dollar general store and then is in the Christian
bookstore.
So I'm like, wait, these are only a dollar here, but they're $30 there.
So I went and bought four of them, went and returned them at the Christian bookstore,
and got the money back.
Right.
And that's what she was doing too?
No, I was doing it.
Oh, I thought you figured out that's what she was doing.
No, no, no, no.
She was returning a book.
She's asked me to return a book for.
you're going to run down and return a book for
and I'm like, I started figuring out
like, oh, I could just scheme and scam this way.
Right. And how old were you? I was like 14.
Okay. So now I'm like gathering up
by my friends and like we're like plotting
and we're like going to like books a million
and we're like doing this like
we did this for like a year.
Like so I had like a whole
organization of like scamming kids
you know using my friends to like to go to bookstores
and start scamming people. Did they
ever figure that out? Like eventually
they're like how many times are you
and return this book.
Yeah.
And I was like, oh, I don't know.
Eventually they started giving us, like, gift cards.
So they were no good at that point.
You know what I mean?
So you're not buying a lot of, a lot at the Christian bookstore.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
But yeah.
And so I was always, like, trying to always think ahead, like, how can I make money,
and, you know, and everything like that, and that scheme and scam like that.
And basically, I was, like, 16, my mom came to me, and she's like, hey, look, I'm found
a dude.
I want to get married.
he does not want to be a stepdaddy.
I'm going to give you the house.
I'm going to give you the car.
Go to school.
Do not fuck this up.
And make sure you just go to school
and everything will be fine.
So I go for like the first year, right?
Then I find this thing in,
it's like a magazine.
I mean, it's how predated this is.
This is like 96, 97.
Get your high school diploma from home.
And I was like a,
it's like a correspondence place
called International Correspondent school
and Scranton people.
it's like for people that are like kids that are like traveling or you know you know yeah yeah it's it's
but they can mail it you can mail it off like like you could do your classes at home and like over the phone
and like take your tests and stuff like that everything so at the age of 16 i started doing this
during my summer between the start of high school and ended up graduating with enough credits before the
start of actual high school and I went turned the paperwork in and the and the school like
whoa whoa whoa this is supposed to take like three years what are you talking about I'm done like here's
all my interpretations I've completed everything now they're like well how did you do advanced
algebra all this and that because I didn't have the grades for that stuff right and what I did was
I paid somebody that knew how to do it right took the test for me past all the correspondence and
that's it. They were like, they were flipping out. They're like, this can't, because there's
three or four kids started signing up. They're all going to do it too. Right. They're like,
well, we can't have this. Right. So they actually made a law in the county banning this
correspondent school in the whole county. But by that point, you'd already-
I've already graduated. So I started working. Because my thing was I was like, I need to go to school.
Man, I need to work. I need to make money. So I started working at a hotel. And I'm working at
holiday end doing banquet set up. And I run in this guy named Barry. He was like a just classic
con man. He's working the front desk. He's like getting people's credit card numbers. He's doing
scams. And he takes a liking to me. And he's like, let me show you a couple things. He starts
showing me how to like take people's credit cards and order stuff. And the main reason he was doing
it was because guess what? I'm 16. If we get busted, he gets no trouble. And the 16 year old gets in
trouble. What happens to me? Nothing. Right. So, so I started doing scams with him. He introduces
me to warranty scams and life changes. What are warranty scams? So, like, for example,
these microphones, right? These cameras. They're very expensive, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, so,
I mean, what I would do is most companies offer a free warranty. So what we do is we would call these
companies up and say, hey, we shipped in a camera to you. And then we would do a,
reverse address search we would say how did you ship it in we did it by UPS and UPS like okay
well do you have a tracking number you could write us proof we'll just send you a new one okay so I would
call UPS up and then I would sit there and it was take this takes several steps call UPS up would be
the first step then I would say hey I shipped in Sony a camera Sony they said oh what date did you do it
okay great you would you know who signed for it I'd write down who signed
for it. Now I know on this date a package was signed for by this person. I don't have anything
else. They won't give me anything else. Hang up, call right back. Hey, on this date, I had sent a
package in and this person signed for it. And it was weighing between this and this. Okay, yeah,
I see the package here. Oh, great. Can I get the tracking number? I lost it. Right. They give me the
tracking number. Then I take the tracking number, call back again and ask for a proof of delivery.
Hey, here's the full tracking number.
Can you send me the proof of delivery?
Well, they'd be like, okay, well, how's that work?
You know, they're going to sit with that person's name on it, right?
Oh, no, that was just my assistant.
He was just shipping it out for me.
Can you put my name and my address on it?
They would alternate, put my name, my address on it.
They would either fax it to me or email it to me.
Okay.
And now I've got a proof of delivery that says,
Charles Hartman, my address, this.
Oh, can you put the description of merchandise
what was inside of it too?
Oh, yeah, sure.
Oh, camera, Sony camera.
And that was it.
Now I've got a proof of delivery from UPS.
I give it to the company.
Company says, well, I don't know.
We must have lost it.
Right.
We'll just replace it or how much did you pay for it.
Well, we paid $1,000 for it.
It would either cut me a check or send me a check.
Right.
So, so between 16,000.
to 21, I probably did over half a million dollars in warranty scams.
Right.
Did you ever just mail out another one?
What's that?
Another, they were...
Oh, yeah, yeah.
A lot of times they'll mail me the product, right?
You just turn it back in or trade or sell it.
I just go sell it.
I had a network of pawn shops.
I come in and like, hey, you got a thousand-dollar camera, give me $500 for it.
Yeah, it's not like it's stolen.
It's not stolen.
And it has a warranty right here.
Right.
Yeah.
And the problem is, is you can only...
only do your name so many times, right?
Yeah.
So I started, you know, finding people I can use her address, user name, the next thing you
know.
And I did that for over five years and never got called.
Yeah, I was going to say, it's funny because it's, that, that, you know, I guess,
you know, I mean, that, that's obviously a scam.
But I'm saying, we'll have, you know, Jess's daughter ordered, like, headphones and
wore them for a year, year and a half.
And then they just got worn out, and one day they just stopped.
Right.
And I just packaged them up and mailed them back to the place and said, listen, I buy, and I was the whole, I buy all your stuff.
We have.
And then I would go on the website and find other devices that they have.
We bought this.
We bought this.
Blah, blah, blah.
These wore out.
And I said, if you could just fix them and bill me for it, send me the invoice, I'll pay you for it knowing.
For them, it's $6.
Right.
For us, it's a $40 pair of headset.
So they just made, they say, oh, thank you very much.
Here's a new headset.
Right.
And that's the same thing.
because what happens is the company doesn't want a problem.
It's not cash because all I did was get a new headset.
You actually get a choice.
And I've never done it for $1,000 or, you know, that would be I'd rather have a check
because now I've got to sell the product.
But even if you sold it at a discount, you're still getting $6 or $800 or $800.
And remember at this time, how old am I?
I'm 16, 17 years old.
A lot of money.
Yeah, for a kid.
I mean, I'm just living life.
Well, until eventually the UPS driver, I had too many packages.
get delivered to my house.
Right.
And the EPS driver was, it was strange.
It was like, all this electronic stuff keeps coming here over and over and over and over again.
And then I was like, he asked me one day, he said, what do you order?
I said, oh, we have a wholesale business.
Right.
And it's just something that's sit well with him.
So he turned it into their investigation department.
Investigation department turned it into the police department.
They start watching.
Next thing you know, I'm sitting there.
I'm expecting an amplifier to come.
because car stereos was like
that was the thing back then right
like amplifier speakers
and then they would replace them like
there's nothing you could get top dollar for it
you could either sell them to somebody
you know or whoever
and I would sit there and all of a sudden
I'm sitting there I'm like I'm waiting for this package
because I got a guy waiting to buy it
because that was the only thing as soon as I knew it was shipped
I'd start looking for buyers
and man I'm sitting there waiting
waiting waiting and next thing you know
like it doesn't come
and it says, oh, package was held at the UPS center.
You have to, we missed the thing.
You have to come pick it up.
It's not good.
I'm stupid.
I'm thinking, okay, no big deal.
You know, I'll go up there and get it.
And I walk in, and the moment I walked in,
I seen a guy stand over in the corner,
and I'm like, looking at me, weird, and next thing you know,
I came up to the corner and just gave my ID, and next thing you know,
like, Charles Hartman,
handcuffed me.
All right.
I'm like, and I'm, at that time, now I'm past 18, right?
So I'm like, so I'm like, I know I'm getting arrested.
So they arrested me, they take me downtown, and they take me in a room and, you know, it's the interrogation, a big interrogation.
They're like, all right, tell us where your boss is, tell us who the guy is.
I'm like, I'm the guy.
Right.
What are you talking about?
No, no, no, no, no.
Who are you working for?
Like, where's the, where's all the.
equipment at where are you working for i'm like there is no equipment this i don't have anything
it's the first right no no no we've we know no we know we know we've gotten we've pulled your
address and we got we see you on thousands of packages delivered here and you've gotten all in your
area who who are you working for it's like you know just snitch is okay i'm like like like i would
have snitched i was like i'm going to jail here like i got nobody to snitch on but myself
And they're just, they're like baffled.
They don't know what to charge me with.
They don't know charging me with fraud.
They don't know to charge me within, you know,
they finally end up charging me with attaining property on a false pretense.
And, and I'm like.
Do they don't even have a, do they have a dollar amount?
Because I'm assuming nothing.
Just for that particular one.
So all they are going to got me for at this point.
So they basically take me in front of the magistrate and I've never been in trouble
before.
Master's, R&R is me.
Went to me going on my own bond.
I got back on the street.
Detective calls me like a week later.
He's like, I don't even have a lawyer.
I went to the arraignment in or whatever.
And I was like, I guess we'll get an attorney or whatever.
And my mom was like, I didn't know how serious trouble I was in.
Right.
Like, is that serious trouble?
Like, I don't even know.
Like, like, they were building a case because they're like, they're like, they have years of this stuff.
Like, they're like, you know, we're going to, you know, so they get me to that.
They came me back downtown, and then I'm going to an attorney, and I guess they're working a deal out.
They don't care at this point about what I've done.
They just want to know how I did it.
So the deal I strike with them is, show us how you did it, and you'll walk on probation.
Right.
So they take me into this room at the UPS center.
We go back, we go to meet downtown, we drive it to the UPS center, and there's all these UPS executives sitting there.
They're like, show us how you scammed us.
Right.
I'm like, what?
I'm like, we're getting in trouble here?
He's like, no, go ahead.
It's fine.
So I do the scam in front of them.
Right.
And the guy was like, oh, this is not going to work.
This is not how you did it.
He's got to have it.
Because they thought I had like somebody working for UPS on the inside.
They're like, our employees are not going to just give you information.
I was like, well, they are, pal.
So I just sit there and we go through the steps.
I call step one, step two, step three, step four.
next thing you know the guy's face is just like you can just see the fast face
so now if you ever call UPS bearer back in the day they won't even give you no
information unless you have the full track of number right so so anybody has a package issue
you probably can blame me for that right I was like it's funny my buddy Zach got caught
he was scamming I want to say Enterprise out of cars he was getting them to
He had just figured out how to call up, give them a number on a corporate card,
and they would allow you him to, anybody to show up, give him a number, show him an ID,
give him the keys of the car, and they could just drive off.
And, of course, they would cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars
because these guys aren't returning the cars.
They're just, yeah.
And they're driving around for a couple of, for a month or two until the report is stolen,
and then they're just selling them and getting them chopped up.
But it's funny, too, because when they have,
Eventually, where they were trying to track him down on that, the big thing that the investigator
was saying was like, who are you working for working with on the inside? He's like, I'm not
working with anybody on the inside. Like, I, can you, I. For a limited time at McDonald's,
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And do it by phone.
Like I'd call up and I, you know, but they just didn't understand.
They didn't want to believe that.
Right.
They don't want to believe that their big corporation is so vulnerable to something, right?
Exactly.
So, you know, I end up getting basically probation and I have to go do like community service and shit.
And I'm like, so I basically end up going and getting a job because I got two because I got probation, right?
Yeah, you can't.
So, and I'm like working at like Kroger.
And I'm like, this sucks.
Like, what the, what am I doing?
Like, this is horrible.
So I ended up getting, hooking up a buddy mine.
And he's like, look, man, he's like, I know how to do checks.
If you're, if you'll work with me, we do checks.
I'm like, I don't say, well, let's go.
Right.
I was like, so he starts showing me how to do check scams.
And I'm like, so we, so, because a lot of these, in my area up there, a lot of these have deep stores, you know,
you know, well, mom and pop, little stores are no ID needed.
You just walk in, you know, on Friday night, hand them your check,
and you just put a little fingerprint right there, boom, and there you go.
You cash it in at the gas station, buy a six pack of beer,
and they give you the difference, and, you know, no big deal.
Right.
Well, what we would do is we would go and we would find companies that had, you know,
that were in that area, and we would go after 5 o'clock, so the company is closed,
so they can't call and verify it.
Right.
And we go in these, you know, small stores, he would put super glue on our fingers right here.
Right.
Kind of throw the, you know, the, the sin off, and we put them on just random.
We would do, like, small amounts, $436, $396.
And we would just go and we would just bang checks in 560 stores in a row every Friday and Saturday and just make money.
But are you guys making the checks yourself?
Yes, yeah, because he had, he had, because he would use a, he used quick,
books, books, yep.
And so he'd get the routing number and everything.
Routing and the count numbers.
And what we would do is a lot of times we would, you know,
find people that we knew that worked normal jobs.
Hey, give you $100 and we take a photocopier, your check.
Right.
Now, now we know what it is.
And they didn't have watermarks like they knew now.
So it's like, it's easy.
You get the logos, put it on there.
Next thing, you know, you print it.
Plus these little gas stations, they're not paying attention to detail, like,
paper and certain things.
Right, until they get hit a few times.
Yeah.
Then they start paying attention.
But by then, you've already moved on to the next store and you're doing it.
So I did that for like three years.
Just like, I had good luck, man.
I had good luck.
My problem was I started doing drugs.
Right.
I started doing pills.
And then I get sloppy, right?
Because you get sloppy when you start getting on pills because you're needing, you know,
now you're, you know, I'm getting a, you know, a couple hundred dollar a day.
pill habit. Then it turns into a bigger habit. Then it turns into other drugs. And I was like,
so I got to the point where we'd burned our area so bad. I was like, I have to figure something
I'll have to do. And I end up hooking up with a, I don't know if you ever remember back
in the day the magazine salesmen. Yeah. People that would knock on the doors. Yeah. It's the biggest
scam of all time. Yeah. They'd say, hey, I'm, hey, I'm winning, I'm making money for a trip, you know,
for school or I'm, you know, going to be this and that.
Well, I was like, and so I didn't have hooking up and going with them on a job.
And I was like, this is the perfect cover.
These people travel to a town for a week or two.
Then they travel to another town.
They're paying for the hotels.
So I'm just like literally working part time for them, traveling with them,
and I'm just out doing checks in little stores.
I'm just like, this is great.
Like I'm not going to get caught.
I mean, because we're not going to be here.
enough for by the time, you know, because the check's not going to immediately show back up, right?
It takes several days for it to go through, so it's not going to immediately happen.
So, I mean, by the time it comes back to the store, we're already in another town.
Right.
So, I mean, I have like a year run doing this.
Like, I'm just making money.
And I'm like, there's points where days I'm just going out selling magazines door to door.
I'm just out doing checks.
And I come back and the manager's like, did you sell anything today?
I'm like, oh, yeah, I sold two magazines.
here's 90 bucks right like I just made a thousand dollars I mean like who cared well
the problem was my pill habit got too big and I got to a point where I wasn't doing checks
properly I was going now I'm knocking the doors trying to sell magazines right I'm trying to make
money and I'm like I'm like going through people's like bathrooms like hey I'm doing selling
magazines to go to school and and I like they're oh yeah come on in and I come in and back
Hey, can I use your bathroom?
And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm going through, like, their medicine cabinet.
I remember, like, this old lady's, like, I remember, like, we were in, like, in Illinois,
and I'm, like, going through this, like, ladies medicine cabinet looking through pills,
and I'm, like, trying to, and I end up taking the pills and put in my pocket.
And she went right back in the bathroom right afterwards, and she's like, where's my
pills?
And I, like, ran out the door, and I'm like, holy shit.
Like, she's, like, chasing after me, and I'm like, and I'm like, oh, my God, like, I'm just,
I know I'm, no, I know it's all going to come to an end, right?
You know, I mean, eventually, right?
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We come to Florida.
Now, that old saying about Florida, right?
You come to Florida on vacation, leave on probation, come back on violation.
right that's that's me like when you were i was like matt where do you live it is tampa's like
fuck anywhere but tampa god please uh but i was like all right you know it's fine now but i was
like so you know so we come to come down here and i dude this is right for christmas like 05 i'm
like dude i'm so messed up on pills i end up like knocking on this girl's door and i'm like hey
i'm selling magazine do do let me in and i walk in and i walk in
and I go into the bathroom, you know, doing my good thing around,
and I look into the bottom of cabinet,
she's got freaking just stacks of grass cash pill.
I'm like, oh, man, so I'm like, like, shh.
I'm like, oh, my phone rang, my boss is waiting for me.
I got to go, you know what I mean?
She fucking starts screaming and hollering.
She's like, you're robbing me.
I'm like, oh.
But she went in the bathroom right after you again.
She realized she knew.
She knew.
So I'm like, I like, she comes right out,
and I like push her out of the way
and I'll just run out the door
and I'm like
as I'm running
keep in mind
I'm like at this time
I'm over 500 pounds
I'm big now right
I've lost a lot of weight since then
I'm over 500 right
you've lost weight since then
yes okay so I
by the time I ended up going to prison
the first time I was 610
you're 500 pounds running
you're that big
yes yes
so just imagine this 500 pound
guy just like
oh
like I ran
so far as my shoe fell off right so like like they found my shoe like and like i'm like going down
the hill so my i call my manager and he picks me up he's like what do you what are you doing i was like
oh this dog tried to attack me and stuff and like i'll have my shoe and so he took me a one more to
get me another pair of shoes so like i ended up like five hours i'm going back to work right
i'm like all right nothing happened you know no big deal you know we're going over to the next town
over I don't think it's in any way I don't realize this is all the same county so they got like
APBs out of all of us like people selling magazines trying to figure out what's going on next thing
I know cops just surround me guns on how they know it was me yeah yeah yeah yeah
wasn't me um the other fat guy wouldn't me you know so I'm like so I end up getting so
they busted me and they charged me with burglary they charged me with uh burglary
of an occupied dwelling with a battery.
Well, in Florida, that's a PBL.
Okay, what's a PBL?
Punishable by life.
Oh, shit.
I don't feel like, did you burglary?
You didn't break in.
She invited you in, but that's not how they look at it.
But that's, once you cross a dwelling and someone's asked you to leave or you commit a battery in Florida inside of a dwelling, you're done.
Yeah, because, I mean, that's, so then, but here comes.
worst part. Now, checks, they start finding out about checks. They found out because my name,
my name was, there are certain times I would use my ID, these checks I'd try cashing. Right.
And I had some in Putton County. I had, you know, some down here in Hillsborough. And they were just
like, oh, what's all these checks and warrants you got everywhere? I'm like, oh, so I knew I was done.
Like, so now, I mean, I go and end up going into Lake County Jail. And like, I'm sitting there for like
three days. You know, I'm just like going through withdrawals, which is the worst thing to
do in jail. If you're going through, you're just like hugging a toilet. You don't want to,
you don't want to be around it. You're just like, you feel like crap. Well, I end up basically,
I'm sitting there and I'm like, I feel like I'm with death. And I finally start getting my senses
back now, you know, you know, and now next day I know, I go and this public defender comes and
sees me. It's right after Christmas. I'm sitting there. She's like, well, I think I might be able
to get you 40. Oh my God. 40. What? Yeah. 40 days? She's like, no, no. She's like, you've got
a punishable about life. She said, we might be able to get you, you know, she said, it's a pun,
you know, I'm like, there's a burglaring side of a dwelling with a lady. And I was like,
There was driving.
Kind of like that.
Like, look, look, this is all you're charged with.
I was like, well, you're fired.
Right.
I called home to my mom.
I was like, they're trying to stick me down here.
Like, she thought that, okay, is this going to be on another little instant, a little slap on the wrist?
Another probation.
A little probation, you know, I'm not coming home.
Right.
Like, you know, 40 years is life.
I mean, that's a long time.
And so they were.
So they went and I started asking around, you know, who's a good attorney.
He gets me, they find me a good attorney there, right?
And he's like, look, he's like, you know, he's like, oh, he's like, just, you need to just sit.
You need to let them forget about you.
Right.
And just, you know, work as a trustee, do whatever, hang out, just stay.
Stay out of trouble.
And gain signatures in there as a trustee.
Yeah.
And just be good.
and I sat for like a year.
And what did he charge you?
Fee, 20.
Okay.
Yeah, that sounds, for a good, for, first, it's funny because like a federal attorney, you know,
and then they want like 50,000 off the rip at least, you know, but for, for, and that's
just to start with.
Then they're going to start milking the time, the investigators, the, yeah, everything.
But a state attorney, I was thinking, yeah, 15 or 20, you get a good one.
Yeah, 20, 20, 20, you're going to go home.
You know what I mean?
it's either you're going to give them 20 or you're going to give the state 20
right one of the two so so we I sat and during this time like I make good for the officers
so I'm likable you know what I mean I'm not in their fucking murder you know what I mean
I'm my child molester you know what I mean it's easy you know what I mean do your time
keep your mouth shut you know no one bothers you and I'm in there and I end up working as
housemen for a couple of housemen officers and a officer
Pollock and Officer Brown
are there. So if you guys ever Google
it, Lake County officers
bringing in drugs and
contraband. They're bringing in
drugs and contraband to us.
We're selling it
and getting them money back.
I feel like that's illegal.
I mean,
it's frowned upon at least. It's frowned upon.
But then the
funniest part is I'm sitting there,
I'm supposed to go to court for like
two or three months and they just keep getting
I keep getting my attorney to push it back.
I'm like, because I'm making money while I'm in jail.
I'm like, plus two, I'm getting good time.
And I'm like, you know, and then they're even writing letters or reference for me too.
And I'm like, you know, this will be great.
I'm going to, you know, oh, yeah, you'll probably get you down to probation or something.
You know what I mean?
But well, well, it ends up coming out basically that comes to me and says, look,
he said the best I can get you is three in.
and a spend his sentence with 20.
But you'll be home in, at that point, you'll be home in two years.
I'm like, well, fuck, man.
I was like, whatever.
You know what I mean?
I mean, this is the best we're going to get, the best we're going to get.
Yeah.
I mean, the dams are better than 40.
Right.
So I end up, so I end up signing it, signing it, and going to prison.
And I get to prison, and it's a whole other world.
We're not in Lake County, Florida anymore.
I mean, this, I mean, we're walking around.
I mean, I get off the bus, and I'm like, holy shit, what have I got myself in?
Like, it's starting to roll, like, dawn on me.
Like, like, there's no guarantee you're going home.
Right.
Like, like, you're in prison here.
Like, you get sent to what, what, the, they have a, is it, they call it a transfer station?
Yeah, so the first, the first time I went to prison in Florida, they sent me to a Lando, to Lando reception.
reception that's what they call reception and they mix you in with guys that have life sentences and guys that are doing two months two months so you're you're in open bay in like the first the first day you're there you're going through like it's cattle prod and they're just sending you through and they're just trying to figure out where they're going to send you and i mean i remember like being in there like and like the officer's walking through and then got any guy who was in there was a chomo and he would be like chomo and bunk 21 chomo and bunk 21
And I'm sitting there like, holy shit.
Well, I'm taking my coffee break.
I'll be gone for the next couple hours.
Yeah.
And you already know what time it is, though.
It's all bad for that.
It's all bad.
And like, I'm just, and I mean, I'm, the good thing at that point is I'm a pretty big dude.
So I'm like, okay, I always think I'm going to worry about, someone's going to like jump on top of me here, I don't think.
You know what I mean?
Right.
So, you know, I end up going to my first camp.
They send me to Cross City CI.
It's like medium, maximum, security level, camp.
And I get there and I meet my buddy Nick and come dear friends to him this day.
And he basically is like showing me the ropes.
He's like, hey man, you just got to, here, I'll get you working in the kitchen.
I was like, man, you'll fit in perfectly with us, man.
You know, we run the kitchen, you know, everything will be good.
I'm like, all right.
I get in the kitchen.
and man, I walk in, it looks like they got an operation going on that.
They got sandwiches they're making on the table.
They got food.
But what is this for like outside people?
Oh, this is for us to sell in the compound.
Right.
Like, what are you guys doing?
And they're like wrapping up these cheeseburgers.
And they start wrapping up all these different little cheeseburgers.
And one guy says, hey, come here, big guy.
I'm like, what do you mean?
He's like, come here.
And he said, they take the saran wrap and wrap these cheeseburg.
burgers around my belly underneath my belly is like this big and underneath it like the little
punch right there right i got like 10 cheeseburgers wrapped and they were like they're like just
when you go out the guards are going to patch you down but you're so big they're not going to fill that
they're going to they're going to let you go so i'm like the first day i'm like carrying like 20
cheeseburgers off the compound and next that's how i you got the name cheeseburger in prison so
they probably liked you too too they thought this guy's worth 20 a day oh this guy this guy this guy this
This guy's our meal ticket.
You know, he's going to, you know, and so I never got into no problems.
You know, you know, I'm going to fit in how I get in because I know, look, look, I'm here for two years.
I got to do this two years.
I'm going to get out of here.
Yeah.
And, I mean, during that time, me and Nick could become really tight.
And Nick's telling me.
What was he in there for?
Fraud, forgery.
Oh, yeah.
Of course, your kindred spirits.
Yeah, kind of spirit.
Yeah, kind of spirit.
He's just hanging out.
He's telling me he's living in, he goes in Vegas.
He's just like, man, this is great.
Yeah.
hang, you know, I was like, man, you got to come hang out.
You know how people are in prison.
Oh, yeah, when you get out, you know.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And after like a wall, you're like, okay, sure, Nick, you know what I mean?
So he leaves.
You know, he, he, O, EOSs.
Two weeks later, I get an envelope from him.
Hey, man, here's my address.
I sent you some money on your books.
Hey, man, if you ever need nothing, I'm here for you.
You know, solid dude, right?
Yeah.
So I end up finishing my time.
I know, me, Matt, I know that I'm not going to do probation.
Right.
Like, I know I'm going to fuck this up.
Right.
Like, I know this is not going to end well for me.
I have a 20-year spend of a sentence.
This is not going to end well for me.
Oh, yeah.
That's not good at all because if you fuck up, you could end up with doing the 20.
I can do the 20 plus if I catch new charges, they can enhance these sentence.
Okay.
See, Florida has the craziest law ever.
You ever heard the reoffender act in Florida?
No.
So this is how it works.
So if you get out of prison in Florida, within three years of you getting out, you catch any charge, they can 10 times your recommended sentence.
So you could end up, 85% of people that are in Florida's system right now are on probation violations.
It's not new charges.
It's not like, like, yeah, they call it they call it a burglary charge, which usually be like five years, right?
Well, now they're going to get 15, 15, 20 years on top of whatever their violations are
because it's a system to make money.
Yeah.
Because, you know, the state, that's how, I mean, U28, 395 made them a lot of money.
That was my prison.
I made them a lot of money.
Every time, that's the reason they do prison counts in Florida three times a day
because every time that they count your number, they're billing the state.
So I'm like, man, I know this is not going to work out.
I got to figure something out.
So I end up, I'm trying to go back home to Virginia,
it was the original plan.
Right.
But they tell me, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
You have to transfer your probation.
I'm not from here.
They're like, well, you got to pick somewhere to go.
And you mean, I don't live here.
They're like, well, pick a county, pick somewhere to go,
find a halfway house figure or something.
So I ended up basically ended up coming to St. Pete
because I had a friend
I lived in St. Pete
and I couldn't end up staying there
and ended up staying in a shelter
for two days
until I can meet my probation officer.
Oh, that sucks.
So you're fresh out of prison.
You're thinking, oh, man,
now I'm in a shelter.
These guys are doing more drugs
than they were on the street.
I'm like, this is great.
So I'm like, I got to get out of here.
So I go meet the probation officer.
He walks in, he's got this big stack here.
He said, all these right here.
here, these are the ones that have failed.
This couple
right here, those are the ones that have passed.
Which one you think you're going to end up in?
I was like, I don't want to go back to home
Virginia. And he's like, well, we're going to
get approved by the state. That's going to be, you know, 60 to 90 days
you'll have to stay here. And 60, 90 days, you're going to violate
me. Right. Like, I'm not going to make it. I mean,
I don't have a job. I don't have no family down here. I have no
support system. I'm going to
going to, I'm going to screw this up.
So I'm like, well, look, can I get a travel pass at least go home, see my mom, you know what I mean, and do this and that?
And he's like, all right, all right, I give you a probable pass.
You come back, be back in 30 days.
So I know when I come back to see him, I got 30 days to come back to see him.
That means I got 29 days, Matt, to get gone and get gone where I'm going and not coming back from.
Right.
So I basically went home, see my mom for a couple days.
I was like, she's like, what are you going to do?
I'm like, I'm going to run.
This is what I'm going to do.
I'm not staying here.
What about, why not get a job?
I'm just curious.
Mindset at that moment was that I'm not getting a job.
I'm not going back to making minimum wage.
And they were talking about probation.
You're going to have to pay this fee, that fee, this fee, that fee.
I'm like, holy shit.
It's funny.
The states always charge you.
The federal feds don't charge you, but the state does.
Yeah, so by the time I'm like, I'm thinking, I'm like, 90% of my income is going to go back to the state here.
I'm never, I'm never going to make it.
Right.
What about an ID?
Are you thinking, like, how are you thinking you're going to pull this off?
So I don't have any really money, right?
So I call him Bunny Nick.
I'm like, he's like, do you come out to Vegas?
He's like, I'm busting checks already.
I'm like, I'll be there.
Oh, Nick.
I'm got him.
I'm right there.
So I fucking.
I now I've got a 20-day lead so I have to be back to probation so I know so I get to
Vegas I take a Greyhound because I don't want to take an airline because I want
to records you go up Greyhound you pay cash for a ticket right took a three-day Greyhound
to get to Vegas I get to Vegas and Nick's got a check scam just booming it's like
getting in how you fit in let's go let's go make money what's he doing so what we're
doing is he's going around he's getting homeless guys my God and
And he's cleaning them up, and he's taking them to, like, the casino in places like that.
And, you know, using them to cash in, because casinos will give you free play when you cash in your check there.
They'll also give you, like, sometimes a 10% bonus or 10%, you know, Vig or whatever.
Just to get your, what's, what's, I'm back?
Just to, they want your, like, just to get you to come straight from work to give us your paycheck.
And blow it here at the casino.
Exactly.
So he's taking these homeless guys, cleaning them up, taking them around.
He's got an ID machine.
He's got, you know, he's got a printer.
He's making bus and checks.
And he's just like, we're just getting routing numbers and accounting numbers.
And he's just taking them.
And we're just going from Vegas all the way up to Reno and just hitting them, hitting them, hit them, hit them, hit them.
So how much was each homeless guy worth?
Probably, probably 10 to 15 grand.
I can't believe.
It's really the casinos.
They're the bad, and they threw you in prison.
Yeah, yeah.
It's really them.
They're horrible.
They are.
I agree to this day.
But how much does a homeless guy get?
You know, we would get a check for like 500 bucks because we'd always keep them small amounts.
So you go up there and they cash them.
And what we would do is, so imagine this.
We would pull into Reno.
We'd find a homeless guy.
You know, we go to a hotel, get him cleaned up.
Nick would run a Walmart, grab some clothes, some cheap Walmart clothes,
you know, khakis, polo, so he looks decent.
Yeah.
Nick drives up.
I'll walk in with the guy.
I'll go stand over and just keep an eye out.
And he'll go and he'll go start, you know, he'll start cashing the check.
And then go meet me in the bathroom, because there's the camera's in the bathroom,
hand me the money.
And then, you know, tell him to go back outside.
side to the car, you know what I mean?
15, 20 minutes later, I come right back out to the car, go to the next casino, and just
keep doing this over and over again.
And because the thing is, is they're not going to pay attention to it if it's one name,
right?
It's one name.
And then the thing is, is half the times we wouldn't have to make IDs.
They would just use the homeless because homeless guys, crazy as them to themselves.
They don't have, they have IDs.
Yeah, they don't, they don't care.
Like, they're thinking by the end of the day, if they're,
going to cash 10 of these, they're going to get $5,000.
You're going to give them, what, $1,000?
Yeah, some like $1,000, a couple hundred bucks each check.
They're going to, they're going to be set.
They're not thinking.
They're not thinking about tomorrow.
They're not thinking about next week.
I've got to spend a month in jail.
Right, right.
And so this goes on.
And I remember, like, when Friday night, we were, like, looking for, we, we didn't
have routing account numbers.
We were out.
So we're, like, one behind this, like, check a cash place.
or like inside the dumpster
of like digging through
looking for receipts
looking for paperwork
looking for anything
here comes a cop car down
so me and Nick are like
crouched inside this dumpster
like hiding
right
cops just like driving by
and I'm thinking
and at this time already
I've already not showed back up
for probation
so I already know
I got a warrant for probation
dangling over my head
and I'm like
it's like I gotta get the fuck out of here
and I had no excuse
man because I had saved a bunch of money
right I could ran the plan was
make a bunch of money with Nick and I was
gonna just go disappear
well you get the adrilling
and rush them more and more
and more and it's working you start feeling
invincible like I can't be stopped
you know and then
we end up going into this one little
little spot up near Elko
and
man we go in this and we get a hotel room
and we go out and it's so
easy to find guys out there like that you know
walking around, hey man, you want to make some money?
And the guy's like, what are you going to do?
I'm like, just come with us and cash some checks.
So we didn't do it.
And we get to like the third casino.
And I see like something's not right.
Like the guys like standing there too long.
You know what I mean?
And next day I know I see these security guards come up and they grab him.
Well, time to run again.
Right.
That's, yep, time to go.
So I'm like, look, get back a car.
Nick, we got to go.
I mean, we're going to leave him, you know.
So we're like literally driving back to his hotel.
And like, we get back to his hotel and we got all this, we have checks here.
We got IDs.
We got, you know, money started out.
Like, we're like throwing stuff in the car complete.
It's not going to be long until.
Yeah, I was going to say, does a homeless guy know where you guys were out of?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because we take him there to clean him up.
Yeah, yeah.
So it's not going to be long.
And here comes the, here comes the troops.
Yeah.
And, like, but the thing was, Nick would always go get them their own room.
So they, he didn't know which room that we were in.
We were just there.
Right.
Or sometimes he would act like we, you know, oh, yeah, this is our room here.
You're what I mean?
And so all of a sudden, we're sitting there and we just look out the window.
We see these two cop cars pull up.
I'm like, and we're like in the window just like looking out.
And we can see the, we can see the homeless guy in the back of the car.
I'm like, oh, God, this is not good.
That room right there.
And they go to the room that we get for him.
And we're in the other room, like right there from God.
I don't know that Nick's got a gun.
Oh, this is getting worse.
And so Nick's got a gun.
And I'm like, what's you going to do with a gun?
Did they go shoot out with the cops?
Like, what are you doing?
That's a Wild West, bro.
Like, what are you doing?
He's like, I'm going back to prison, bro.
I'm like, oh my God, this is where life ends for me.
Like, I'm like, this is crazy.
Why do you have this?
What are you doing?
Just put that shit away.
Like, we're going to, we're going to walk out of here,
and we're going to get the car and drive away.
We waited for, like, an hour.
Because they went and they looked through the room,
they looked around.
They couldn't figure it out.
You know what I mean?
Where we're at.
So, basically, they laughed.
They felt the guy was maybe just lying.
Maybe he didn't really have accomplices.
You know what I mean?
Right.
Whatever.
We leave.
I'm like, we get back to Vegas, and I'm like,
and Nick's like, oh, we'll figure something else.
And I was like, you know, I'm going to figure something out.
away from you because like I didn't know that you were going to go to that extreme like it's one thing
it's like checks and stuff like like dude I'm not trying to have a shootout with cops yeah like this
dude like like let's come on man this ain't no so like it was like the classic end of a great
movie with us like we're like he's gonna go this way I'm gonna go this way Nick like it's been
fun man but I got me away from you so I'm like I got I have I have money so I got a nice chunk of money
saved. I'm like, I need to get...
What's a long second?
Probably close to 200.
Oh, okay. That is a nice.
I mean, for me, more than I thought, yeah. Yeah, yeah, because I was, I was just stacking
it up. Right. So I go to Mexico. I crossed the border. I'm like, I'm just going to,
my plan is I'm going to Tijuana. I'm going to hang out here and I'm going to drop down
eventually down and just hang out because I know I've charges now. I've gotten, I've figured
I've gotten charges. I know I got at least a minimum. I'm,
I'm not coming back.
So how do you, when you say, what do you just walk across the border?
So with Greyhound back of the day, they would literally drive you,
because that was before the, before they passed the laws where you had to do your passport,
immigration card, you know what I mean?
You literally just walk across the border.
Nice.
So, so I'm in Tijuana.
I'm like in revolution, right off revolution, which is like the big party strip.
I find a house that's not like a apartment.
complex and it's like it's all a bunch of Americans that are living there and they're all living
their rent super cheap and working in San Diego and they're just crossing the border like every
morning in San Diego if you look at the border the line is wrapped around the run because people
live in Tijuana and work in San Diego because of the cost of living I find this house
as apartment complex and the lady's like oh yeah you back $200 I'm thinking she's like
$200 a week she's like $200 a month
I'm like, oh, well, here, you know what I mean?
No problem.
Here's a couple months of worth of rent.
So I'm, like, hanging out, and I meet guys in there, and I'm like, I got to get an ID.
And you can start talking to people, and it doesn't take a long, you know, to get an ID.
Right.
And is this, you're getting a, um, a fake ID.
A fake, I know, but is it, is it a U.S. ID?
Yeah, like a state.
Yeah, just state, California.
Okay.
And so, you know, he takes me to this little shop, a couple hundred bucks later.
He's like, yeah.
He said, I'm like, I'm like,
Like, yeah, he's like, he said, this is good for you just have this for, you know, for down here.
He's like, but if you try to cross the border with it, it's not going to work.
And I mean, this is good for just here.
Like, all right, he was working on getting me a really good one for I could use a whole one to travel back and forth.
Well, I'm there, man, for like two months.
And I start noticing, like, the Mexican, the police are watching me more and more.
And I start getting nervous because I'm like, I'm hearing about all these Americans getting kidnapped, you know,
either cartel or whoever.
And I'm like, I'm hanging out down there.
I'm hanging out at the bar every night.
And I'm spending money.
I'm flashing money.
I'm like, this is not good.
I'm going to, something's going to happen.
Either I'm going to get kidnapped.
We get robbed.
You know what I mean?
So I decide, I'm going to go back across the border.
So I just, I had my buddy just drive me back across the border.
And I'm like, I got to hope my ID.
And I know I'm going to use my real ID.
So I'm praying they don't actually run it.
because they run it, I'm done.
Right.
So, like, we go with, like, a busy kind of time,
and we're just sitting there looking like,
oh, yeah, just came back from Mexico,
and they just look at us, like, go ahead, U.S. citizens, go ahead.
I got lucky.
All right.
I get across the border.
Well, I'm back in California.
So I'm like, what am I going to do?
I still have a little bit of money, you know what I mean?
But I can't, I can't, I'm going to get a job now.
Now I'm going to go get a job.
I didn't get a job then.
What I'm going to do now?
So I go back to what I know.
I go back to, I call a magazine crew.
I'm like, hey, you're looking for somebody?
You know, sell magazines?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
They send me a ground ticket.
Next thing I know, I'm back on the ground.
I go to a magazine, I'm selling magazines.
And I'm walking around.
I have this, remember, I have this fake ID.
Right.
This one fake ID.
So I'm using this.
And I go for like a year, man, working to sell magazines,
just hanging out doing the magazine crew.
And I know I've got, you know, shit in Florida.
I've got warrants, you know, in Virginia, you know what I mean?
I'm like, I know if I mentioned I'm going to get called, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
And one faithful day, I knock on the door and I'm like, hey, we're selling magazines, and it was a cop.
Right.
And he was like, what are you doing?
He's like, oh, I'm selling a magazine.
Well, you have a permit?
I'm like, permit, what's a permit?
And the guy's like, oh, you need a permit to do this.
Like, I mean, I don't know.
I work for this guy.
I was like, this is the permit they said I need to have.
And I was like, nah, man, this is, nah.
Now, we've heard about you guys coming and scam.
And you know what I mean?
Because it's all a big scam, right?
But you get, they pay you some money.
They never get a magazine.
No, no, no, no.
No, the scam always was, was with the magazines door to door was you would tell them,
you would say, hey, you're going, hey, the person, I'm going to school in the area.
I'm, you know, I'm working to go out to win a trip somewhere, blah, blah, blah.
Right.
I was always a big guy, right?
So I was like, yeah, I'm going to coronary school.
I'm going to be a chef.
I was like, you know why you can't ever trust a skinny chef, right?
And they're like, well, why is that?
Because they don't eat their own food.
I ate my own food.
You can trust me, right?
You'll get your magazine.
And the guy was like, and they're paying like $40 for these magazines.
They're overpriced magazines.
But it's like when you buy stuff from kids from fundraisers, right?
It's overpriced.
Well, they never give them a magazine.
You're getting a cut off of the money.
And these guys are making bank.
Right.
And they've got, you know, 30, 40 kids working for them.
And they're not going in front.
They're not knocking on the doors.
They don't have to do anything but kick back.
Then we kick back.
And then they got, and the thing is, at the end of the day, all these kids, you've got
20, 30 kids making, you know, $5, 600 a day for you.
It adds up very quickly.
Right.
I knock on the door and the cops like, you know, man, where's your ID?
And I gave him this ID.
The fake one?
Yeah.
I mean, I can't.
I'm going to get my real one.
I didn't even carried my real one with me.
I always left the little one at the hotel.
What state are you in?
Still California?
No, I'm in Boise, Idaho.
Oh, there's a chance he doesn't even know what a California ID looks like.
Right, right, right.
Well, he runs it.
He runs it, and he runs it, and he goes, and it comes back on not file, not on file.
Right.
He's like, that's weird.
He said, you at least come back on file.
I was like, I don't know.
I don't know, man.
I don't know.
He's like, so he almost lets me go.
Like, at that point where he almost lets me go.
Right.
And he's like.
something to say he's sitting right with this man hold on he calls he calls down to the station they send a unit
they bring him in and ask me they ask me my name my birthday what's not coming up in the system
so they're like come on we're just going to run your prints real quick man you know and I'm like
up I'm done and so they're like they get me in the car and they're like last chance tell us who
you really are I'm like all right Charles Hartman in 119 I mean they're like oh
Ding! Positive 51! Ding! Positive 51! Warrant! Active Warrant! Transportational Warrant. Oh, this is Florida, dude. They probably ain't going to come get you. Why didn't you just tell us, man? I was like, I don't know. I was like, yeah. They're going to come get me. Yeah, they're going to come get me. And he's like... And so they take me to the Boise Jail, and I go in front of the judge and sign up the little thing, you know, to get transferred back to Florida. They said, well, they have 30 days to come get you. If they don't get you,
you'll get released.
Nice.
I'm like, okay.
So,
28 days go by.
I'm like,
yes,
I'm getting out of here,
man,
I'm getting out of here.
29 days go by.
I'm like counting it
on the head,
right?
It's the 30th day.
They're like,
Hartman,
roll it up.
I'm like,
but usually if they're taking you
down to be transported,
right,
they'll cuff you.
They tell you to roll it up
and roll up all the way.
That means you're leaving.
Right.
They tell me roll it up all the way.
I thought maybe up.
That's right.
out of here. I'm, nope, I'm good. I'm walking down,
round the corner, see two friendly, smiling
detect us from Lake County. You're like, hey, Charlie.
I'm like, son of a bitch. I knew, I knew I was done. So,
and look, I was like, oh, look, they got their job to do. They're not, they're not,
they're not trying no problems. Yeah. It is, they're like, look, man, we'll take you,
we get you something neat. We're going, we're going to, we're going to, I was like,
we're driving back to Florida? I'm like, no, we're flying.
I'm like, okay.
I'm like, but we're going to Cleveland first.
I was like, I don't have charges in Cleveland?
Like, what are we talking about?
He's like, no, he's like, the way we work, man,
is when we pick you guys up like this
and you guys are spread out like this,
we'll pick up a second one in another city
to make it worth, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
The trip.
I'm like, okay, so we get to Cleveland.
We fly.
So we get into, first we get to Boise at the airport.
And man, like, you're talking about walking straight on to a plane?
Like you're a rock star?
Yeah, I was straight on there.
Nobody's on the plane.
We're sitting there.
One's here.
One's behind me.
They uncuff me.
And they're like, look, just don't give us no problems, man.
I'm like, look, look.
They're like, oh, yeah, you're probably not going to get that much time anyway.
They don't know the case.
They just know it's probation violation.
Yeah.
Yeah, they don't know, like, I'm fitting to get, I'm going to get murdered when he
back.
And he's like, all right, cool, man.
Just go to, you know, just be cool, man.
We get the Cleveland.
They're being real relaxed to me.
We pull into this, the Cleveland.
the Cleveland jail.
When I tell you,
I was the only white dude there,
it was not a good situation.
And I was like, oh, this is not good.
They didn't want to leave me.
Like, they're like,
oh,
oh, sorry.
Well, we'll have McDonald's in the morning for you, kid.
Good luck.
I'm like, son of it.
But not, go in, everything's fine.
It's just normal jail, right?
Well, they go to release me out in the morning
to come downstairs.
Well, they didn't screw it up with the paperwork.
They put me in the release pile to release me to the street.
So I'm about ready to go to the streets of Cleveland
when I'm supposed to be putting in a holding cell.
Right.
So I'm in this, like, group, and they're letting us out five at a time.
And I'm like, holy shit, I'm about ready to go.
I don't know what I'm going to do.
But I was like, I can't get in trouble.
They let me go.
Right.
Like, I'm not, I'm not escaping.
they're telling me to leave
I'm not gonna stay here
so I'm like talking to this guy
man you live right here he's like yeah it's like
man if I gave you a couple hundred bucks
or something man can you take me to your
guy can use your phone I can get some money wired
to me and stuff and everything he's like
it's like I ain't supposed to be getting released
right now he's like yeah I got you
I mean like criminals are always like
you can tell someone will help you you know what I mean
yeah so it's like all right so I'm
sitting there and there's like slow
letting everybody out and it's down to like me and like two other people and they're like
what's your name like uh hartman like yeah i got got a member rides waiting for me he's like
they're like no no man you're up here's to be over there kid so they take me they take me in
and put me in a cell and i'm in there with this other guy and he's the guy we came to pick up so
so i'm sitting there i'm laughing because they come they come like 15 20 minutes later they put
handcuffs take us there they fly us to a lambie
And I told him, I was like, I was like, what are you going to do?
I was like, dude, I was going to run.
What do you mean was I going to do?
I'm going to figure it out.
I'm going to figure it out.
I ain't going to be here for y'all.
So, do you know how much paperwork and hell this would have been?
I was like, yeah, but it would have been fun.
Yeah.
So I get there and, man, I get to, I get to, I get to Lake County.
And I mean, I know I'm done, right?
I know I've got to spend a sentence.
I already know what time.
I know I'm minimum, I'm getting 20.
You know, I got other charges I've called.
I mean, in between, you know what they're going to do. So I'm just sitting there and I'm like, well, yeah, I already had my mind. Like, this is it. You know what I mean? You know, you know, and my lawyer, he comes down and he's just like, just hang out, just chill. New lawyer? Or same lawyer? Same lawyer. Same lawyer. He's like, just relax. He's like, yeah, he's like, he's like, I want to, he said, you know, he's like, he said, give me 10. He said, if you give me 10, I promise you, you, you,
will not, you will not, you will not, you will not do all that time. So I call my mom. She arranged
it, got into the money. And I'm thinking, I'm like, man, this better, this better work.
And he's like, he's like, yeah, he's like, I think I can get us, I think he gets you just
the 20. I'm like, gave you 10. What do you mean? I was like, maybe he was, he was screwing with
me. He knew what he had already done. Right. He's like, just, just hang out. He said,
oh, we'll go to court, we'll go to court, we're going to court.
I'm like, in my mind, said, I'm already, all right, I'm fitting to go.
I know I'm going back to prison.
You're going to be at least, you know, 20.
I'm just going to, you know, because at that point, I mean, what are you going to do?
You have no defense.
Right.
You have no defense.
There's no, there's no, there's no, it's not like I'm sorry for what I did.
You know, I won't that I can't say those people are like, oh, I'm so sorry, I did that,
Your Honor.
I'm like, really.
They don't, they don't, they don't, that doesn't, they don't.
That doesn't affect him.
No, no.
They hear that every day.
They hear that 40 times a day with people that are much better at crying and pleading and have real excuses.
Right.
I was like, I was an asshole.
That was my excuse, Your Honor.
I like, and so I was like, man, I was like, man, let me just go in here.
Let me just did this.
And we get in there and they pulls us aside.
And they would have, they had these like cells were like cage cells where you could talk to your attorney.
Yeah.
And first thing he goes in, he says, when you get inside, you say, yes, ma'am, no, ma'am, and shut the F up.
Like, I was like, well, I thought I'm, I thought I'm just going to have Judge Hill.
So what am I selling Judge Hill a woman for?
He's like, Judge Hill's not in there.
Just be quiet.
Judge Hill and Lake County, Florida is famous.
They call him Hang him High Hill.
Right.
He loves giving him sentences out.
He gives decades out.
He said literally in his campaign to be judge, he'll give him a million years out.
before he retires.
Yeah, I've heard about this guy.
Yeah, and I think he's given out more than a million dollars,
more than a million, though.
Yeah, so.
His goal was, I wanted to, his goal was I want to give out more than,
I plan on giving out more than a million years,
and he's actually surpassed that, way, way past that.
Yeah, so I, so I know, like, I know the judge,
I know the prosecutor, I know what's going to happen to me.
Well, I'm sitting there, man, I'm like, man,
it's going on her, and I know it's a female judge,
young, young female.
judge too like she just got appointed and it's a different prosecutor and they're like
mr hartman here's um and he's for saying all these affidavits over and all this all paperwork over
and everything and all these witnesses and everything and I'm like of my character and how I've
changed my life none of what you had none of I have I'm like there was a there was a thing from the
pastor and I'm like what is this like oh mr. Hartman I see you know you're really trying to
change your life and we're going to go on the sentencing guidelines and the sentencing guidelines
guided out the four years department of corrections um with time served all i had to do is going to do
my four years so wait wait and that that would end the probation because because yeah because he
found a loophole in the way the probation was written so they went back and they originally sent us to me
just to four years so i'm getting four years with time credited from the
county time. So I got like three years ago
to do when I go home. Right.
I'm like,
I can't sign this fast enough. I'm like,
yes, ma'am, and we're going to put you in drug
court when you go in. I'm like, yes, ma'am,
make the best of your life. Yes, ma'am.
I'm out of the door.
I'm like, and like when you're,
like, I'm like sitting there like skipping back
across the thing and I was like, what,
what happened? I thought you were going to get time.
I was like, man, I don't know.
He's like, that's crazy.
crazy. He said, I wouldn't say
another when you go inside, I mean, because everyone
don't think you snitched. There's no
way that your sentence gets
converted down on that cheap. So I
was like, yeah, you're right. So I started thinking about it.
I was like, I ain't going to say nothing. You know what I mean?
Yeah. Just got 20.
Yeah, I'm just going to go just, yeah, just, you know,
because when I think it's that kind of time, you don't ask them
like how to, how to go. Right. You know, so
I just kind of saw them just sitting around.
And I was waiting to go to prison. Because I figured I was
going on the prison run that week.
Well, the prison run goes, comes.
they don't take me.
I'm like, this is weird.
I should be, I should be back at a, I should be back at a, a landau, you know, today.
Well, the following week comes, that Thursday comes, and I get called back to court.
I'm like, this is weird.
Like, why am I going back to court?
Like, I don't have cases here.
Well, I get to end up calling in and Judge Hill's there.
He's sitting there.
He asked me where my attorney was, and I was like,
I don't know. I ain't seen him since last week.
I never plan to see him again, to be honest with you.
He's like, well, Mr. Hartman, I don't know what your attorney did.
I'll have a word with him later.
But if I ever see you back in my court again, don't plan to leave.
It's like, okay.
Okay, yes, sir.
He said, if I ever see you back in the court again, he said, you won't be going home.
Right.
I'm like, he got pissed because my attorney did was he moved.
He had the case moved to a different judge for sentencing,
and it moved when he was on vacation because he was on vacation a week before.
Right.
He was supposed to originally sentenced me that Thursday.
He got it moved to a different judge.
And so, and once you're sentenced, you can't be sentenced again.
Yeah.
It's done.
Like, so I end up going, I end up going, and I end up going out,
and then they tell me, oh, you.
you have a charge in Putton County for a check from my old check that popped up you have to go up and deal with that so they sent me up there and then I end up dealing with that they ran it concurrent they're like okay you're just going to go you'll go to Lake County from here and you'll start your prison time well I go to prison Lake County way different than Orlando that's for sure if you've ever heard Lake Butler CI yeah it's not the place to be no no and the judge has put it in my file
I'm a menace.
Right.
And I need special treatment.
So they were special to like be really, really nice to you?
Oh, the hands on treatment.
They want to make sure they want to make sure I adjusted well.
Right.
Yeah.
So first couple, first couple days of just getting smacked around in the face and just, and what can you do?
You can't, we don't fell out of form, complained to somebody.
Like, no.
Right.
You're going to take this, shut up.
So I'm sitting here and I'm, I'm supposed to score out to like minimum, like minimum security.
I'm just able to be able to go to work release.
Right.
No, no.
He sent me to FSP.
Okay.
Florida State Penitentiary.
This is the same place where they have death row.
Right.
They sent me to a max institution.
I'm like, oh, he's a nonviolent.
Nonviolent person.
They're just sticking it to me.
Right.
I get off the bus and the guy's looking at me.
He's like, who did you piss off?
Because there's no way you're supposed to be here.
Right.
Well, your scores are too low.
Like I went to a medium, I scored out to a camp.
Right.
But in my case, I had too much time to go to a camp.
You only got four years.
Right.
I'm supposed to go to a work camp, work for six to nine months,
and then go outside the gate, work there,
and then eventually go to work release.
All right.
No, he made sure that didn't happen.
What did Zach's, one of the guards?
or the guy, one of the guards in S-I-S in the, um, Zach's case, put down that he was like,
not a gang member, something, oh, that he was a sovereign citizen.
So they, they moved him to a pen because these guys file paperwork and give everybody a hard time.
So you're a sovereign citizen, you might as well be like a violent gang member.
You're done.
You're a troublemaker.
So he must have said something.
Yeah, oh, he put the paperwork.
He, I was completely screw job.
So, you know, so I'm, I go in there.
And, Matt, to be honest with you, when I got there, nothing really changed.
Because I was just like, okay, now I'm thinking three years, I'm back out.
Right.
Be back to my normal shit.
You know what I mean?
Figure out what else.
I'm going to get to do.
Well, this time now I'm going to have probation.
So start all over again.
And it was to a point where I got, I looked up on an old timer named Joe.
And he started really talking to me.
And he was like, man, you realize you're doing a life sentence, right?
Like, what do you mean?
No, I'm not.
I'm getting out in three years.
What are you talking about?
He's like, no, man, you're three years here, two years here, three.
You're just doing it on the installment plan.
You should just go ahead and go out and murder somebody and get it over with and come back.
And then that way we'll be roommates forever.
All right.
Like, fuck.
Like, you started dawning on me.
Like, I've got to turn this shit around.
Like, I got to figure out how to use my brain from 14 to now has been how to scam.
And I got to figure out how to do it different.
Right.
and how to scam better or how to do life better both okay but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but the
legal scam okay find the right way to do it and and he's like dude dude you're like a salesman
you're at the right to sell me you should be in sales and I'm like I didn't even think about it
you know what I mean like I'm like I was like I was like I need I need a fresh start
I'm finishing my sentence they're asking me where I want to go
So I want to go to Vegas.
I was like, because I'm like, at least there I know it's a 24-hour city.
You know Nick?
No, Nick's there.
No, Nick's gone.
Nick's gone.
Where's Nick?
Whatever happened to Nick?
You don't know?
No, I'm good friends.
He's in New York.
He's still, he's in New York.
Yeah.
He's hanging out.
And he's a guest of the state.
Right.
Okay.
But he, but I knew Vegas very well.
Right.
I didn't want to go back home to Roanoke because I was like, I'll be around the same
friends, same stuff. If I go to Vegas, I could start fresh. It's a 24-hour city. I'm not going to
have a driver's license so I can get around on the bus. You know what I mean? And I knew I knew some
people, you know what I mean? So I figured it was a good place to get a fresh start. Right.
So like this time I go and I go to a halfway house, I go to a program. And like, and I get there
and I'm like, man, I started realizing, like, I can't change. I can, I just got to turn this
in a way to start hustling.
Right.
And I ended up working like two jobs, two dead-end jobs,
just to making money, just trying to figure it out.
Yeah.
And I ended up hooking up with a guy that ended up selling satellites door to door.
I was like, I already knew I could sell, you know, doing the magazine thing.
That's a scam.
So I started working for direct TV.
And he gave me a job because his brother had been arrested and went to prison and got out
and nobody would give him a job.
Right.
It's the only reason he gave me a job.
And, like, in the first year, I made $150,000.
Holy shit.
So on direct tests.
Direct TV and DISH Network door to door.
Because you're in Vegas, nobody wants to knock in Vegas.
Right.
Because it's 100 degrees.
You know, I'm getting $3 to $500 a deal, you know, on closing deals.
I'm just, like, just, I turn my addictive personality into something else completely different.
And then I just started, man, I'd start hustling.
Like, I'd start hustling doing it that way.
And I was like, okay, I don't have to scam.
I was like, this is too much money.
I can turn around.
And I'd always been a fan of, like, I had always, when I was younger, a fan of pro wrestling, right?
And so me and my buddy was like, we could start, you know, doing these little wrestling shows and these little fundraisers and stuff.
And there's so much money in sponsorships and sales.
I said, we started doing that
and we started killing it.
We ran a company for three years
and we were making $200,000.
I mean, it was great.
Right.
And it was just, you know,
white, you know, it was just like,
man, it was just like
nothing could go wrong.
You know what I mean?
Like I was like,
life was perfect, man.
I had a good little business going.
I was going legit.
You know, I'd gotten past the three years,
the three years of,
you know, usually they say within three years
you're going to go back to prison.
and I ended up meeting an amazing girl
and it wasn't without her, I would be done.
Like, I would have went back.
I would have slipped back into something.
I know.
And, you know, so I'm in Philly.
And the crazy thing is, like, I take an Uber, right?
And I'm like taking an Uber to go to an event.
And the Uber driver cancels and then she pops up.
This girl pops up and pulls up.
She says, I'm Jessica, I'm your Uber driver.
I'm like, okay, great.
I'm talking to her
next time I'm talking
she's driving me out back up
the hotel and I'm like
what are you doing tonight
she's like
what do you mean
I was like you want to go get a drink
it's like early
it's like 10 o'clock
she's like
I can't do that
I'm your Uber driver
I was like who
is there a code of conduct
are you violating the rules here
like I was like
you don't want to
you don't want to get a one star review here
right and she's like
fuck you
so we want to start having
a couple drinks
and next thing you know
I'm flying back to Philly all the time
seeing her and we end up getting engaged
and got married.
Okay.
So life was good, man.
She was the reason
and then even when things got tough,
like, you know, when COVID came
and we all lost everything
because I was doing live events.
So I'm doing multiple live events.
I'm done.
So like, what's my mind think now?
Let's go back to scams.
Yeah, yeah.
We'll go back to scams.
We'll figure out.
scam or something to do she's like fuck you are doing that she's like you're not doing that she's
like so you've gone too far and and the crazy thing was is well I was in Vegas one of the jobs
I had for like a week or two I worked for a sports betting company and they would call and they would
sell sports betting advice to different people like that wanted to buy they would call people call in
hey who should I bet on the New York Knicks or the Orlando Magic tonight when I think about that
I think about the movie, two for the money or something?
Yeah, yeah, very much so, yes, sir.
Okay.
So the, so I was like, man, I was like, I always had fun doing that job.
That was a fun job for a couple weeks.
Call around.
I called around and finally found this, I found this ad of this guy, and he was like, yeah,
you know, a handicapped or blah, and he's like, all right, cool, let me get you in contact
with the manager.
And he's like, can you work virtually?
yeah I'll start to tomorrow and he was just like I mean I knew nothing about sports
sports betting right like you know besides you know why when I was in prison I learned about
sports betting like in prison people sports bet and for tunas and laundry the ticket the ticket man
you know what I mean and so so the guy was like I was like just follow the script and I
follow the script and start working and next day I'm working like 18 19 hours a day just like
I'm working all night like because sports gambling like
We had to cut my phone up because it's dingy, right?
Yeah, yeah.
And it's like because, you know, you got West Coast, you know,
and then I'm working for, like, some of the best handicappers in the country.
So I got clients calling me all the time,
wanting to buy packages and services and different stuff.
And now I've been there four years.
And now I run my own thing.
My own thing is an independent contractor now.
And it's been a, it's pretty an amazing run.
Through the guy you started with or separately?
Basically, I started with him and then kind of branched with my own and did my own thing.
And he basically just backed me completely.
It was like, yeah, he's like, you've outgrown as being here.
Right.
So you run your own thing.
And this year, I've made a half a million dollars doing sports betting advice.
I mean, it's great, man.
I mean, it's, I found a way to turn my addictive personality into something that's legal to make money.
and how do you get do the advertising yourself or does he do it or so so um it's a it's a joint
operation so like one of the services we work for is a multi they do advertising and then
they'll send clients and then they'll get a percentage of it it's kind of like a franchisee right
and then then i can do my own advertising i want but i have enough clients through their funnel
don't need to all right so yeah it works good
All right.
I've got a few questions.
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This you probably have some stories about.
Sure.
And this is just for me going through some of your videos.
Yeah.
So do you want to talk about the target stealing scam or there's something in the story behind that?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
What about the, yeah, I was going to say, we need the death certificate scam.
Yeah, I have that.
Death certificate.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So if you want to start with Target.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, um, so I was like, I was like 19 years old and I went and got a job at Target.
And it was supposed to be just as a simple, a little job just to make some money.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
And it was more just honestly to get my mom off my ass because I was doing checks and I was doing shit.
And I was doing the warranty stuff.
And I just needed a job.
So the guy walks in, the guy's like, hey, uh, man, you're a pretty big-sized guy.
you want to work in loss prevention.
I'm like, sure, what do I got to do?
He's like, oh, you just walk around, act like you're shopping, you know what I mean?
And everything.
And then, and you just basically catch people shoplifting.
Like, okay.
All right.
It's easy.
Like, so within like a couple of weeks, they are having me close the store at night time.
Boy.
That was a mistake.
Yeah.
So we used to care.
We used to shop.
We'd always bring our merchandise back to our office back, right?
and we dump it in our office.
And then they just put it back out again.
They'd put it back out again.
And I was like, wait.
It's like, huh, no one's really going to see.
I'm in the one room in here that doesn't have a camera.
But I just take this merchandise and put it in my bag.
Right.
No one's going to notice that.
So I would literally just take the merchandise and I would,
I'd open these CDs and DVDs and it's just, you know, stack,
and have stacks of book bag, you know, book bag of stuff, you know, PlayStation's and whatever,
and just walk right out the door, right out of the front door.
I would always take out the little tag so it wouldn't beep.
Right.
And then, like, I remember, like, I took the, there was, like, a little ceiling tile.
Right.
And I took the ceiling tiles, and I would show up the stuff up in the ceiling tiles,
and I would just leave it up there.
And eventually, when they said, eventually, eventually what happened was they actually put in a little,
I guess I had missed one of the magnets
and I went out of the doors
and my bag beeped
and I just kept walking
and the manager seen it was like
that's weird I was like I don't know yeah
maybe maybe something I bought a drinker
or something earlier I don't know
but it just made him think it's like why did it beep
right it was just that one moment
you know what I mean so
they ended up putting in a camera
inside the lost prevention off room
just they don't trust you at all
No.
That's so...
Why would you?
Why would you get me any keys in the city?
Like, why?
I was like, you're so in stupidity.
So, so that Friday night, I'd do my normal deal, walk out the door, Saturday morning.
I walk in and come to work, I walk right in, there's two cops, and there, and regular,
and then my boss, and then his boss, and all the little plastics from up and the
ceilings laying on the table and they're like so what do you want to talk about i was i don't
know so they're like look look we're not going to press charges just sign this saying that you stole
this stuff so we can turn this into the insurance company so we can get reimbursed right that's all they
care about yeah they don't they don't care about the prosecution what they just want to be able
to turn it in because i had stolen so much of they it was affecting their quarterly
sales right they're like they're like we got to do we got to account for this you know
what I mean so yeah so that would basically yeah and that was a that was it man I probably
I probably got away with thousands every week from Target for months and just just kept on banking
money up what was the you have another one the bank yeah yeah I was going to say what about the
birth certificate I'm sorry the death certificate thing all right so stealing dead people's
information.
Yes.
So my buddy worked at Oakey's funeral home, and people, he would come in and...
People are dying to get in there.
Yeah.
It's a business that never, never quits, right?
So they literally, he would always have these people come in.
And when he turns into death certificates and everything, right, and then they get sent
off, you usually have a two to three week period, right, of time or until they actually
file it with the state.
Well, when he would, he would provide me all their information because he's got all their information.
He's got their wallets there, their IDs.
So he's just giving me their information.
And we're just like running up credit cards and things because it's taking,
remember, this isn't modern technology today where somebody dies and they can put the sit in the system and it's over, right?
I mean, now back in the day, it takes days and weeks to get everything sent, right?
Well, it's funny.
this is this is funny so you know when you when you die right um the there's there's there's
actually a death benefit that pays to bury you it's like 350 450 so what one of the things so
have you ever if you pull somebody's credit that's died this is a problem when people try
and make a fake ID using a death certificate right if you pull it let's say two years later you
get somebody's social security number that died and you go and you pull their credit it'll say
deceased. Right. And you're like, well, how do they know that? The way they know that is when
they go to the funeral home. Right. And they get their death certificate. The funeral home
sends it to the Social Security Administration to get the $450 toward the burial. And now they are
notified that this person is deceased. Right. And so now when they check with Social Security,
it says this is a deceased person. But that takes time. Yes. You know what I'm saying?
Even if you, when they get it, they may not release that.
You know, they have to cut a check that takes 30 days, 60 day, however long until they get it.
Usually we had about a 90-day window.
Right.
But you're talking about just taking their stuff and they, you've got probably, yeah, like you said, months.
You've got months to use those credit cards.
So it's a credit card company doesn't know and won't know for months, if at all.
If at all.
And all it's going to happen is the credit cards are going to go to that, the bills are going to go to them.
But it would be even better is if you could pay the minimum payments for a couple of months to keep them open.
keep a remote. I never thought
it that way, but that's really, I should know
you years earlier. Yeah. But, no,
and then that's what, that's what we would do.
We would do that, and then we would take it,
and we would just run these cards up and charges
up, and then by the time it was all
said and done, I mean,
now all these bills are stacked up,
but what are they going to do? They're going to send them to help
these, this person's dead.
So the credit card company is just going to write it off.
Yeah. Well, you know what, it's funny. I had,
I actually had a, when I first started,
I'd probably been doing it in a couple of years
when I was a mortgage broker.
We had a guy that we lent him,
I don't know, it was nothing to.
It was 50 or $75,000 for some little shithole house, right?
He was an old guy.
And sure enough, four months later,
and he had perfect credit.
He was insane, but he had perfect credit.
Nice.
I remember he died, and we found out like, whatever,
like a month or two later or something,
he had died, and I thought,
that's funny because I thought that's funny he you know he died I wonder if you could do something
with his credit right like and I thought let's pull his credit because we had pulled it you know
three or four months earlier and he he had a bunch of credit cards but he had owed no money on
them like a hundred bucks five hundred dollars two dollars and he had credit cards was like
$20,000 limits 30,000 limits like huge limits and so when we pulled his credit
we found out his kids ran up every one of his credit cards of course he has a $20,000
he has like $22,000 a $30,000 a limit it was like $31,000 so we realized too that obviously
what happened was his kids realized what happened they ran up the credit cards oh yeah yeah yeah exactly
I mean because I mean and that's what we would do I mean with with him working at Oakey's I mean
we're getting literally the day they're dying he's giving me their information yeah they got plenty
of time yeah plenty of time so you're just you're just you're
getting new credit cards in and we were we were getting credit cards we were we had a friend that
worked in a loan office oh so so we're going for getting loans and i mean and then you know and then
we're just we're just racking up the bills right and then you know and then we're sitting there like
oh give me us you know you know get you know get their information and just keep racking it up
and open up a checking account i don't know why this excites me just talking about it's me i'm all
excited um yeah okay so so so what
about a rental car scam so rental car scams um very similar what you're talking about uh your
your buddy yeah yeah we would we would we would get rental car scams and what we would go to the
we would we were we had this technology like he did we would just roll up in there and we would find
the paperwork inside and sometimes you know like a lot of times they would drop the cars off right
right and you know the paperwork being inside the cars so we would grab grab the rental cars we'd also
go into the going to the airport and
inside the actual,
into the,
where the luggage is.
And we grabbed the luggage too
at the same time.
Just like, and just walk right out
and just, like, you know what?
And just go up to the lot
because back then people would just drop their key
and they would have their keys inside the car.
We would just grab the keys
and we'd have the paper.
Now you get the paperwork of, you know,
all the information.
Are the doors unlocked or?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, a lot of times people just leave
the doors unlocked and you're,
and there's all the information on how to, you know,
this car is,
running under this, his cars running under that, that, and we would, we would grab it and use that
to grab that information.
I always wonder when the, like, you know, Jess and I have rented cars recently, and then
they're like, oh, if you come after hours, just drop it in the slot, and they'll have
like some little, it's almost, it's like a box, and I always wanted to like, why didn't
somebody just walk up with a crowbar, yank that box off and open it up?
I mean.
Or does it, or I thought, you know, or I think, well, maybe it slides down and actually
goes inside or something, but, I mean, but worst comes worse of it.
I mean, most of them places have got keys, right?
All you're going to do with them keys is if we need you get them keys,
then you get the car.
What are you going to do?
You're still driving around a stolen car.
You're still running a store car.
You take it to chop shop and get a couple grand quickly, very quickly for a car.
Yeah.
I writ down.
It's a long day.
Forky king did.
Luckily, I can edit that.
But, you know, I'll leave it in.
I wrote down Wells Fargo scam.
Is that related to the checks?
Yes, Bob.
I'll check, yeah.
You were locked up with the CEO, with your CEO?
Yes, yes.
So, yeah, so remember earlier when I was telling you about the officers when I'm
first time I went to Lake County, right?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, Officer Brown and Pollock.
Well, I'm sitting there, and this is the craziest thing.
I'm sitting there in Lake Butler.
This is the second time in.
I'm sitting there, and all of a sudden I look up and I see Pollock walking in.
But he's not walking in and Brown.
He's walking in in blue.
Right.
And his face is just, it's like, why are you here?
You know, because I should have went through Orlando, but I went through there.
Well, he got, he ended up getting arrested after I went to prison for snuggling in contraband.
Right.
And he was actually in the process of going to prison.
And he's like, hey, man, you got to just keep.
Right.
Don't take, they'll tell them.
He's like, they don't know what I'm a CEO.
You know what I mean?
I'm like, well, man.
I'm going to give you a list.
No, I'm like, man, I'm going to go tell the dude running the pod because I'm like,
because I can't, it comes out, you know what I mean, I know this dude, I don't, I don't say nothing.
I'm just as guilty, you know what I mean?
So very, very quickly, he actually got, was being given the list out very quickly to people.
And he said, I just want to do my time.
I don't want to go to Pete.
Of course, of course.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm one of you guys.
I was bringing in the stuff.
And they're like, nah, not, man.
That's not how it works.
But you're going to that store first thing tomorrow morning.
You would take advantage of us.
But the funny thing is, is when I started doing my YouTube shorts, like six months ago, right, six months ago, all of a sudden, I mean, I can share it to you guys, I'll send it to you guys so you guys can put it on the real or whatever.
But like, he actually messaged me.
He's out.
He's like, I see, I see you talk about me on your thing.
He's like, oh, man.
I was like, oh, man, you want to ask him if you want to come on the show?
Yeah, you should come on the show.
Yeah, for sure.
I definitely will.
Yeah, yeah.
I was going to say, you know, it's funny, too, because every once in
somebody from Coleman that was locked up will reach out to me and be like, you know,
hey, man, I was locked up.
I was in C4.
Remember we used to hang out here?
And it's like, and you don't.
Yeah, I don't remember a lot of people.
I don't remember names because everybody uses them fake name.
Right.
And so, like, I don't remember T-Dog because I've met 50 T-Dogs or, or, or, you know,
Or what are they, or, oh, God, what's the, the big one that they, uh.
Yeah, of course, you have short dogs, you have tea dogs.
You have, uh, big guy.
I was going to say, what's...
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, they've got so many names that they just reuse over and over again.
It's funny, uh, Boziac mentioned the other day of some guy.
They used to call, can't, uh, can't get right.
Yeah.
Can't get right. What's going on?
Like, because he just, no matter what he did, he just couldn't do anything right.
You know, just saw.
Yeah.
I tried to push chainsaw.
I tried,
they were like,
well,
what do they call you?
They call me chainsaw,
and they'd be like,
nah, bro.
They don't call you,
I never got to call anything but,
but Cox.
I tried to push,
I tried to push chainsaw,
but no,
just Cox.
Probably the worst I think I ever felt
was the first time I went to prison.
Because you know,
when you get there,
you know,
when you go to Lando,
you get your first roommate,
right?
Right.
Selly.
You're silly, right?
And everybody's on,
transit like you don't know when you're leaving you don't know where you're on your camp and
everything and everyone's everybody's in the same boat where i trade you're coming from the county
you're trading stamps for stuff coffee and everything and i walk in and a cell he's like he's like
oh my name's tibone i'm like oh fuck here we go and you're locked in the cell with this guy for
12 13 hours a day so so i have to like you know you have to be cordial and you have to listen
to them right you know even though you know they're like
Well, he's telling you is bullshit.
You know what I mean?
It doesn't make sense.
You know what I mean?
Whatever.
And so he's like telling me how he's like the king of Miami.
He's the drug lord of Miami.
He's got millions of dollars.
They caught me with 30 bricks of heroin.
But I got a good lawyer, so only got two years.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So he's telling me about, hey, he's the kingpin of Miami.
He's got a helicopter.
And he flies privately to the Lakers games.
But he's missing four teeth.
Yes.
And the fact that he's got no, like, no commissary money.
He's waiting for his money to come on.
And I'm just sitting there like, but his stories are so entertaining.
I'm like, okay, man, I've got free TV in here.
So go ahead, kill me with the thing.
And I'm sitting there letting him tell these stories.
Well, my money hits.
Well, you know, because, you know, I brought money from the county, so my money comes on.
So I go get coffee and I'm going to get, you know, slides and everything.
I'm like, man, this dude ain't got no slides, he ain't got no, you know, no, no, here, man, here's the yoder, here's some slides, here's a shampoo, you know what I mean?
You know what I mean? Don't use that state bar soap they gave. You use this to go, I got to be trapped in there with you.
At least be clean and you're good. And he's, hey, man, can I get some coffee? You know, so yeah, my money's on the way soon. I'm like, stop. That's okay. That's okay. Just keep telling me them stories and keep my time rolling here so I can, I'm good.
We're in there, and he's telling me about he had, he was driving down on the road with his brother,
and he was losing street credit with his, with his crew.
So he, he, him and his brother pulled up on a car, a car carriers that have like these expensive cars.
And he like jumped from the truck onto the, onto the thing and like laid the thing out.
And like, all right on Miami, right on the highway.
And I'm just like, this is insane.
like this isn't this isn't um what is the fast and the furious um right well no there's a there's a
um i don't know if you ever seen them in prison there's a there's um there's some there's
there's there's books that are they're traditionally written by black authors that are urban novels
urban novels yes um called a cartel hood books yes and this the guy this guy was like basically
reading from one of those is he's telling me this story so i'm just like so like there two goes
by and I'm like I'm hanging out with the white dudes on stairs they're just like yeah what's up
with your room he's like man he's just he's the bug man don't worry about him you know I'm just I'm stuck
with him you know what I mean I haven't heard that turn in a while yeah they call it guys
that are nuts I call him a bug yeah yeah and and all of a sudden here comes the next group of
people in and I guess a couple dudes from his county jail recognizes him and he basically
and they're like oh what's up man da da da da he's oh what's up man da da da da and and and and and and
I find out he's basically
it's been snitching for the past
two months. Right. And now
they all know he's a snitch from the county
and they're like
so they come to my table where I'm at
I'm playing cards and they're like, yo man
we're fitting up there and tighten him up man
he told him on a bunch of people from
at home. I'm like what? I was like
oh I thought he was a big drug deal or I'm like
playing along. I thought he was like he was a man
no man. I was like
I was like he's like
he's like we don't take anything that's in that room. I'm like
well the shit
in the bottom
bottom bunk
but that's my shit
I'm gonna go lock
that right now
yeah anything else
you want to go in
y'all hand y'all's business
so I'm gonna earn
and I'm like
I like my lock
I said
hey man
if I was you
I would get on your feet
man
you got y'all
you got some visitors
coming
yeah
and I walked back downstairs
and all you heard
and you heard
is that the
the sneakers
the squeaking on the
on the concrete
yeah
a remix album
you know 2.0
and it's like
Like, oh my God, I come back upstairs, and he swore up and all.
And they took his little stuff that I gave him, and they took his, they even took his own estate shoes and everything.
He's just laying there.
I was like, now what happened?
He's like, man, I got to tell you, man.
I was kind of making a clue to them stories, man.
Oh, man, for real?
So, yeah, man, I, man, I've done a lot of bad things, man.
I was like, oh, my God.
Like, they're welcome to prison.
It's like the Army, be whatever you want to be.
Yeah.
And that's, I was just like, some of the characters you meet in prison are just amazing.
Yeah, they're, they're great.
It's, um, the commissary thing, it's funny.
I, I had a guy, we had a guy that he kept, you know, you know, you felt your commissary list.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so he would say, yo, bro, can you get me some such and such, my money's going to hit.
It's not going to hit till tomorrow, so I'm going to miss comment.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So guys would mark stuff down for him.
Right.
And then the commissary would come and he'd get it.
And then he would say, hey, I got you.
I got you on this commissary.
What do I need?
You got me this?
I owe you a coffee and a creamer.
And I also owe you this.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm going to get you some M&Ms, too.
I'm going to get you some.
And he adds some extra of you.
Oh, no, you have to do that.
No, it's cool.
It's cool.
And then, of course, he's going to be generous because he knows he puts it into the
commissary with everybody else.
The bags show up, because this is in the county.
Right, right.
So they wheel in all the bags.
call out your name and get your bag
and he would stay on there the whole time like this
and then they'd be like he'd go up and say
what his name is and they'd be like yeah we got nothing
for you you go and then he'd go straight
to the phone pick up the phone
right right right right and then he'd come and be like man
you guys I'm so sorry bro
I I you know they didn't send
the money the guy said he didn't send it yet
he's going to send it today oh man I'm so sorry
no problem and then
the next week would come by
right and he would
But he would come out, hey, man, I got you this time.
I'm going to get you this.
So this happened, like, literally happened like.
Actually, I think somebody did send him money one time.
So he got like weeks and weeks because he did it again.
Right.
And I remember he said towards the end, he's like, yo, yo, Cox, what do I owe you?
I'm going to get you that bag of coffee and this.
I'm like, right, right.
I said, hey, and he goes, can I get you?
What else can I get you?
I go, get me four peanut M&Ms back.
Oh, okay.
And he goes, I said, you know what?
I say, go ahead and get me, you know, get me some.
an extra bag of coffee.
Oh,
okay.
Can you get me a...
He's like,
man, that's a lot.
I said,
what does it matter, bro?
I said,
you're not getting any commissary.
And everybody just blurss out laughing.
Right, right, right.
Oh, man, fuck you, bro.
But sure enough,
two hours later,
he was,
where's my stuff?
Yeah, yeah,
what happened?
Yeah.
Which is fine.
You don't have any money.
You're barely getting any money in.
It's fine.
I mean,
that's the thing about in prison.
Like,
I had a lot of friends,
man.
I was smart.
I had money on the streets.
Right.
So I always knew, surround myself with people, you know what I mean?
And, but them kind of people are good to have because you need stuff done in prison.
Yeah.
Yeah, that guy will, he'll probably, you know, these guys clean clothes.
They do shoes, you know, they'll clean your shoes.
They'll do, they'll hold your cell phone for you.
Yeah, make your bunk bed.
Well, we didn't have, I mean, we didn't have many cell phones at that time.
So the federal prisons are full of cell phones now.
Right, right, right.
But back then, I was.
there before COVID.
Like after COVID, everybody I talked to, like since we've been calling and you heard
the ringing, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's somebody from federal prison called twice.
Nice, nice. It says federal prison on it.
Nice.
But, you know, like I would, before COVID, well, after COVID, so many officers retired.
Yeah.
And they brought new officers in that don't really know anything.
and so they get groomed and
yeah and the prisoners so the prisoners are going nuts
they can get away with anything why because there's no
officers that really know how the system works
or knows our little scam so
the prison I was in that had
I'll bet you had four cell phones out of 2,000 guys
and they were coveted
now every time they do a sweep they'll find
250 cell phones for a couple of like
or 300 cell phones
every every month or so they're finding
these guys making alcohol but you know hooch they'll like none of that ever was happening when
I was there but you know they got a new staff and and the staff's bringing in bringing in stuff
yeah bringing in drugs they're bringing in cell phones they're bringing in all kinds of stuff that
they're not supposed to see I guess it was different because like you know for state because like you know
my two big sense was you know 05 to 08 and then you know from 2010 to 2014 right and I mean we
were just I mean we were loaded with cell phones yeah but it's the state they don't get
paid enough. So the officers are supplementing what they're supplementing their income by bringing in a
cell phone for a thousand dollars. It's an $80 cell phone. They're getting $1,000 for it.
Right. So, but in the federal system, these guys were being paid so well. And they, because you have to
think once they've been there 10, 15 years, these guys are making $80, $100,000 a year as an officer.
It's not worth bringing in a couple cell phones. No. But when they get hired, they're being hired
at like $35,000. And so they're supplementing that $35,000. And so they're supplementing that $30,000.
$5,000 by, look, if once a month I bring in two cell phones, that, that's an extra $24,000 a year.
Yeah.
So that's worth it.
It's worth the time, you know?
I mean, because, I mean, the guy, I mean, especially in the state, I mean, you can groom
officers so easily.
Like, I mean, you're, you're just, you're just hanging out with them, buying them sodas.
And it always was, always struck me weird, like, like, you could, you would be able to
groom them like the easiest way by, like, like, oh, go give me a honey.
bun and a soda like you want the you want a shitty honey bun and a soda like i i had a my my my cousin was in
was locked up with me and one of the guards would constantly come to him and say and be like yo
you got you got any fucking you got any snickers he'd go yeah give me a snickers you got all right
he'd go get him a snickers but this was also like his his room would get raided and they'd take all
of his stuff and they'd stick it in in the um the mop room which is locked right and the next guard that
came on he would go hey man let me um my place got hit he'd go can i get the key to the to the mop
so i can get a mop and he goes all right here go get it go get it you know he'd go and he come
he'd be walking out the thing with all of his stuff yeah yeah yeah he gets it another guy gives it back
because he's making friends with him you know i was never like that with the the guards but you know
i never really had any any real money and all the money i i didn't buy a lot of stuff like i wasn't
trying to make myself comfortable.
I was writing stories and I had a different level of comfort where most guys are like
just trying to keep themselves entertained and be relaxed.
Yeah, I mean.
I mean, and you're using dark psychology on these guys.
You know, you're gaslighting these guys up and, you know, and it's such a mind manipulation
when you're with these, with the guards.
Everything is in prison.
Yeah.
I mean, the reason I think prison is the greatest education you could give a person in sales and marketing
because you drop somebody in prison
and you're like, live with this person,
different race, different background,
different everything, and survive.
Yeah.
Well, you know, the other thing is prison is the only time
most of these guys, like the white collar guys,
and then you've got the guy, the street guys,
that they're ever going to mix together.
You've got to guys that are multi-millionaires
that are rooming with a guy that's a crackhead
that's never left the state
or really even his area
and these guys are now spending
hours a day talking
like that crackhead's never going to have
the opportunity to talk to this guy
and this guy's here and talking to this crackhead
who's sitting there and he's like
my god your mother was what
your father did look oh my god
what do you mean your cousin did this
how did you know like he's never met this guy before
and now he's trapped in a room
so you have that used to say it was the great equalizer
didn't matter how much money you had
you could still end up in a room for two years
with a guy that doesn't have an education
and has been a drug addict his entire life.
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing where, I mean,
I don't know about the federal level,
but the state level is it is very much us versus them.
It's the blue versus brown.
It's, you know, you band together, you know what I mean?
I don't feel like it's that much like that.
So here's the difference between the state system, too.
Is it in the state system,
it's my understanding is
there's a lot of interaction with cops
I mean sorry with the
with the guards or prison guards
like there's lots of guards
they're all over the place
you're constantly having to interact with them
in the federal system
I could go
a year and never talk to a guard
like I never like you literally
you're being counted they don't talk to you
when you're counted they don't there's no real
interaction maybe they might call
mail call but I could literally go
six months to a year before I ever had to go and ask them for anything or say anything to
it. And when I say a year, it's only because every once a year you had to meet with your
counselor and your unit manager. And most of the time you walked in and they'd say, oh, you got
20-something years to go and you probably should be programming, but you don't have to worry
about it right now. You got 20 years. So here, just sign off here and you go, all right. And you'd sign
and you'd walk out. But in the state system, there's all kinds of interaction. Oh, yeah. I mean,
And, I mean, I don't know this with the racist, but, like, in Florida, like, it's, it's, like, you know, black and white get work right along with each other, you know what I mean?
Like, in other states and, like, federal, I've heard it's, like, it's very, you know, segregated, you know what I mean?
For a certain point.
See, I think it, it obviously goes by, by the different prisons, obviously, because, you know, it was semi like that in the, um, at the medium, but at the low, it definitely was.
not like that like it was definitely like we're you know like probably one of the guys that
I'd say like if a grown man can have a best friend um one of my best friends I would say see
does that does that I still got to bother you it would bother me to this day if I look down
on my phone and was like federal prison I'm like fuck and this guy keeps calling I mean I know who
it is well it's one of two or three guys um uh I would say that that uh you know a lot like
for instance one of the guys that I met that I
talked to say that actually we were interviewed today.
He was one of those three guys that we were all here together.
Yeah, yeah.
Is a guy named Zach that I met in the medium in federal prison, black guy.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
We hang out.
We text all the time.
So, you know, there's not that divide.
And especially when you go down to the low.
And I'm sure there's even less when you get to the camp.
And a lot of people are just pretending.
Yeah.
You know, it's almost like they're pretending that they're in a game.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that's the thing like in the state level.
You got the, you know, the white gangs.
and then they're like, oh,
but then most of the gang bangers
are those are the same guys that have,
you know, that have punk girlfriends.
And then, you know, that are just like hanging out
with each other, you know, and they're like, oh, yeah,
can't be around them guys.
And so, cell shuts, it's like, oh.
You know what's so funny about that?
Is that this is the South.
There's very little racial tension
in the South prison systems.
But if you go to California.
Oh, yeah, no, it's a whole other world.
Oh, my God.
Or you go to New York.
York? Or it's like, okay, well, they're supposed to be, you know, kind of racial harmony in these states. And these guys are like, you can't take a pencil from a black guy. You're not supposed to be talking to them. You can't deal with them. You can't play cards with them. You can, like, or your own guys will beat the crap out of you. Like, it's not like that down here that I know of. Maybe in the pins. No, it's not, not in that way. It's, it's, you know, no, you got the course, you got the ones who says they're, you know, white power and then guys. But, you know,
But then it's like, you know, it's like, oh, then you see them secretly making deals with, you know, people.
And it's like, it's like, it's not that way.
Mostly, I feel like it's a front.
And it's really more for protection.
Like you feel more protected.
Well, yeah, because it's a numbers thing.
You feel like you're protected because you have all these people here.
And that, I mean, I remember the, like, the worst thing I think ever happened to me where I realized it's like, I was, I think, it was, toward my second stint.
And I was in there.
and my, I had got a razor blade, and I was using it to chop up food, like, you know, sausages to make goulages.
I got it in my locker, right?
Well, this guy comes to me, he's like, hey, man, can I borrow a tuna?
I'm like, yeah, the same thing you're talking about, you know, hey, I'll get you tomorrow, get you tomorrow, yeah, no problem, man.
Hey, can I borrow, where I borrow cheese?
No, my money's coming, blah, blah, because it's not like in Florida State, like your money can come on any day.
It's not like a certain day.
I mean, he just refreshes.
It's $75 hours every Monday.
It refreshes.
Right.
You know, but on Saturday, your money can come on.
You can have $75 hours.
So he's like, yeah, yeah.
I was like, I was like, finally, after about the third time, I was like, oh, man.
Look, man, I can't keep letting you borrow stuff, man.
He's like, oh, man, I got you for real.
I got you for real.
I was like, all right, man.
And my buddy was like, my buddy Callie boy was like, look, man, you better have his,
you better have his shit tomorrow.
For real.
I was like, yeah, I got, I got it more.
I just talked to my mom, the money will be there.
So he goes and bars and stuff out of my locker, right?
And I was sitting there at the table playing cards.
And next thing I know, you know, it's locked down.
We're sitting there and I'm laying in bed.
I'm sitting there relaxing.
Next thing is here comes cops.
It's in my bunk.
Get up, get up, get up, get up, get up.
He didn't want to drop the kite that I was going to escape.
And I had a knife.
So.
because he wants you have to go away so he don't have to pay the debt and then so he's like they're like digging through my locker
and this female is like digging through my locker and she pokes herself with the razor oh no so and her fingers like just bleeding down
I'm like oh fuck this ain't good and they grabbed me up and they're taking me and they got me handcuffed and I'm walking
and medical was straight ahead
because whenever you go to confinement
in Florida you automatically go to a medical
just to make sure you're going to be okay in confinement
like you have any medical issues
you need a bull or bunk whatever
well they take me the opposite path
and I'm going around the building
where there's no, it's a blind spot
where there's no cameras.
Not good at all.
Next thing I know, feet get kicked out underneath me
I go straight to the ground.
They're dropping it.
I mean luckily enough I was cuff
they probably would have done more damage
if I hadn't been cuffed.
But I was cuffed, I was so tight,
and I dropped down,
and they're, like, just dropping elbows on me,
and they're, like, taking their mace
and, like, trying to show it in my mouth
and, like, shoot, me, and I'm just getting,
I got mace, and I'm just getting elbowed,
and I'm like, and I'm not screaming,
because I'm not going to sell for it.
Like, the one thing is I knew,
if I don't sell for it,
the more I react, the more they're going to react.
So I just get mace and get the shit kicked out of me.
And I get, they take me to the cell,
to the shower cell and they had me
uncuff and shower me
and I'm getting showered down and everything
and I'm not saying anything.
Right.
Am I saying anything?
And I'm like just,
and then I'm like bleeding
from the side of my face and everything.
It's like they take me into the cell
and they put me in a one-man cell.
I mean, well, it's a two-buck cell
but I'm empty.
Yeah.
I'm like, and next thing I know,
I'm just sitting there and like 10 minutes later
the sergeant comes up to the door.
I'm like, the trick they would do
is they would get you back there
now they got you back there, you're kicking the door or you're doing something.
Now they're going to spray you again or they're going to or they'll starve you to death.
What they'll do is they'll say, oh, refusing to eat.
Like, no, not.
Yeah, because they walk by the cell and they've got a hand feed you your train.
Oh, refusal to eat.
Like, you know, and they would open your flap and they shut your flap.
Right.
And they would take two, three days and they wouldn't even feed you.
And then eventually they would, you know, the nurse come, oh, you want to eat.
You know, we're going to speak, all the officers not feeding me.
Right.
That's going to go over well.
So, you know, so the sergeant comes to me and he knows me.
He's like, he's like, what's up, man?
I was like, look, look, I had the thing.
What was it?
I said, dude.
And he's like, yeah, he's like, he's like, it's the same.
He said, this is on fire.
I said, sergeant was like, look, man, just feed me, man.
Don't gas me.
I ain't saying a word.
He said, all right.
You know, two, three hours later.
I get a roommate.
They move somebody into my thing.
So that way,
now I know since they put somebody in there,
they're not going to gas me every day.
Right.
So now I'm in there with them,
and like I end up getting like,
you know,
60 days for a weapon charge or whatever.
And the whole time I own the compound,
I'm like, you know,
my buddy sends me a note back there.
He's like, the guy checked into,
he's downstairs.
He's in fear of his life now.
So, but the problem now is I have a weapon charge
and he put the fear of life.
He checked in.
under me so they can't put us both back out on the compound so they transfer me and i end up
getting transferred i ended up getting transferred to tayor c i oh he could have just checked in yeah he
didn't have to drop the note he could have just checked in yeah he yeah but but he thought the first
time when he dropped the note i would just go away and and nobody would say anything no it's
saying together yeah and then yeah that's just that's how it is man and people in prison
will literally sell their soul for a noodle yeah it's the craziest thing i've ever seen
scene.
What about catfish in prison?
Oh, yeah.
So catfishing in prison.
So my buddy Nick,
right, good old Nick, man.
He had the cat fishing game down.
Right.
So, like, when you would sit there
and you would do this,
you would do these crazy women
will write dudes that are locked up.
They're in love with it.
It's such a control thing, right?
It goes back to dark psychology
where you're like, you're controlling them, but they think they're controlling you.
Right.
And he's like writing these guys.
He's even writing dudes.
Right.
And I remember one time, like, he's writing the dude wanted to come visit him.
And he's like, Nick's like, no, bro, you can't come visit me.
He goes, like, I'll get in trouble here.
You know, they'll, you know, they'll beat me up here.
You know, they find out that we're, we're an item, we're in love.
And he's just like getting them to send money to him.
Yeah.
And, I mean, he would just, and he literally.
catfish this one girl
she would literally
working at Walmart
I was not making a ton of money right
so she's like sitting in
his whole paycheck every week and it's like
and it's like amazing
it's like it was just like you would sit there
and watch these guys like
I mean a girl's name in prison
like a pen pal is worth gold
right and now I mean now they have
like websites you can get put on
and all kinds of stuff but it's like
I remember there was like there was there was
they would pass these girls around like pen pals like like they would be like oh you know so i mean
the thing is is like that's the reason you always would in state i don't know how it's unfair but
you always tear your corner of your envelope off and you throw it away like the return address oh yeah
yeah yeah yeah because you don't want someone writing your your people and stuff right well i even i even
had a friend who was uh basically he was uh playing both sides of defense in prison he was uh he had a
girlfriend in prison and he had a wife on the outside and he he was like even you know he was like
telling the punk oh we're going to get married and when i got out we'll leave my wife so the
phone goes and grabs the wife's address and writes a letter to her and tells him everything i'm i'm
here with your husband every night he talks about me i knew your kids names and it's like this poor
guy goes to visitation thinking his wife like starts snapping visitation like the jubes
jumped over the table and was like, like, choking him.
Like, you know, like, you know, it's like, like, what do you do?
Like, why would you even put yourself in that position?
I know.
I was going to say, so the pen pal thing, so I was on a couple of TV shows, like American
Greed and Dateline and stuff.
Yeah, yeah.
So I would get these letters from, from women would write me.
Like, I had a woman that had just gotten out of federal or got out of like state prison.
Right.
She's writing me like, I want to hook up with you.
I want to learn from you.
Your game was so tight.
you know and i'm just like like i i can't write this person back like this person's insane and sending
like photographs of herself it's like stop i'm not interested yeah but i had this i had a guy that
wrote me and said he loved my artwork blah blah blah but i knew he was gay because in the in the letter
he mentioned uh going to um following madonna he mentioned madonna that he had gone to this madonna
concert and I take care of my grandmother full time and I dressed up as Madonna for, you know,
whatever. And then another time he's like, the next week I'm going to a Madonna. And I remember
everybody I let it read the letter. They were like, this guy's mentioned Madonna three separate
times in a two-page letter. Yeah. And so they were like, you know, what are you going to do? I said,
oh, and his whole thing was, I want to buy a painting from you. So I wrote back and I said,
listen, bro, I get it, but I don't have access to paint paintings in here.
Like, there's paintings, but I said, you know, to paint oil paintings, you would need,
it's $400 or $500 just for the basic paint set.
Plus, you have to buy the canvases.
And I can only build, you can only, the largest size you can get is whatever, because
it's like, I want a five foot by 10 foot paintings.
Like, you can't do any of that in here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I explain that, I sent it back.
Then he writes back later, he's like, look, what can you do?
And I was like, I mean, for probably a hundred.
I can get like a watercolor pencil set.
Yeah.
You know, and I can write on and get water paper and draw something for you.
Like, and he said, look, I'm going to send you, you know, a hundred bucks to get the set.
Well, the set was like $50.
Like the whole lot of stuff, I spent maybe $50 and the whole thing.
So I have 50 left over.
So I actually draw something up.
I actually drew something.
And I sent it to the guy like, here, here you go, because he gave me an extra,
because it was an extra 50 bucks, whatever.
and then he sends me another thing and says
look you know I love
you know I'm so I'm so excited that you
written me so he's wanting to get something else
from like hey kid is there any way you could this
and so my buddy I'm like I'm not going to write this guy
and this is weird and I remember my buddy Harold
what do you want you know draw at your penis or something
he just he wanted me to keep sitting himself
anyway my buddy Harold which was my celly
yeah we're sitting there and he goes
you know this is this is like
what if this guy keep you're going to keep
this going? I said, no, I don't think so. I said, I might try and get another hundred bucks or something,
but I can't imagine. I don't know. I said, it's feeling real, real creepy. And I said, he keeps
mentioned Madonna. This guy's clearly gay. He takes care of his grandmother. He's like a registered
nerd. Like, something's not right about this guy. Right, right. And he goes, well, if you keep it
going, he goes, like, what if he wants to talk to you on the phone? And I went, I don't care if he
pays for it. I'll talk to him on the phone. And he's, well, what if he wants to come see you? And I
went, I mean, if he'll buy me
some food out of the locker, or out of
the vending machines, I said, I'll go to visit.
Yeah, no right. And he goes, what if
he, I go, I mean, fuck, I go, bro,
I got a lot of time. And he goes,
I said, I mean, if he's going to buy me some food, I said,
I'll go. And he goes, what if he gets
here and he wants a hug? And I go,
I mean, I'll give the guy a hug. I got a lot
of time, Harold. And then he goes,
he said, what if he wants
a peck on the face, on the, he wants
a quick kiss? I go, it's just a
kiss. I've got a lot of time.
What do you want me to say?
Harold, Harold, for a cheeseburger, what about?
Whoa, well, we're in different spots.
You're leaving in two years.
Listen, we were laughing so fucking hard.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But, yeah, I would get these letters.
I could never, I could never do it.
I just could, I'd write one letters as like, I can't do it.
Yeah, yeah, it was just, I was like, I mean, he had like a lab going.
It was just like, he was writing four or five of them at one time.
Oh, listen, there are a guy.
I knew a guy.
His name is Ellis.
His name is Ellis Cook, and I remember he started writing this chick, and she came to see it.
She's sitting in money, everything, money for the phone, money for, for, for, for, for a minute so you can use the email system.
Yeah.
Yeah, she's sitting in money to put on his books so he can buy commissary, and she comes to see him one time.
And we were like, and we were like, what, what's she looked like?
What's going on?
What's going on?
He goes, he came back and he goes, she's a biggin.
She's a big in
And I went
What do you mean big?
And he goes
I mean she's a big girl
And I go
Well what do you mean big
He was I mean
He was I gave her a hug
When she came in
I saw her
And I was like holy shit
And he said
And I gave her a hug
And he goes
And I couldn't get
He couldn't wrap it
My arms
He said
Yeah
I
He said
But she did say
She's gonna drop some money
In commissary for me
Hey man
Hey man
It's I'm telling
man, people will, people in prison will, well, they'll, I've never seen people
ruling the cell they're sold for a honey bun and, and a noodle as much as they will.
I mean, I mean, they're right. I mean, it's like they'll, they'll make the craziest lies up
or they'll do order to whatever. Oh, they'll promise all kinds of stuff.
Oh, yeah, oh yeah, my, my, my, my dead grandmother is going to come back from the grave and
mail you $100, Matt, for, for this honey bun this week.
Yeah, I'm, I'm going to leave my wife and kids and come live with you. Like, you don't
know this person. You've written 20 letters.
What are you doing?
Yeah.
Like, it's crazy, man.
And the thing is, like, I think the worst, though, is the relationships people get in prison.
When you start getting into the marriages inside prison, like, some of these guys, they, I mean, like, like you said, some of them have a lot of time, right?
So they look at, like, this is really my husband or this is my, my, my husband over.
I remember, I was at Cross City City I, and, like, I'm sitting there on, like, the pedal bike, and I'm, like, just hanging out with a couple buddies.
and I watch one of these, you know,
you know, they call she, male guys come up and,
and see, punk, they're going to come in prison.
Yeah, I didn't know what she wanted to say for the video.
But, yeah, but so the, so, like, people don't realize
the punks are in the prison.
I've said that.
Like, like, like, they ain't the gang bangers.
They should get an enhancement.
They have a good time in prison.
Like, like, like, they, they run the show.
Yeah, people don't realize.
Yeah, they're like, oh, and they got the inmates wrapped around their finger,
and they got the guards wrapped up.
around their finger and they're like so i remember this one monk was sitting there like hanging out
and this this brother came up to his and just slapped him around the ass and was like hey tonight i'm
fuck you he's like he's like no i'm married my husband's in confinement blah blah blah and i'm like
you just told this is the one way he's right you told us about it yeah yeah he he he went and
grab the he was on the wait bar he was on the way bar working out next thing you know he couldn't
grab he couldn't grab the knife and just ha ha ha
What happened to that guy?
What the, the punk?
Oh, went to confinement.
He already had a life sentence.
He had two double life sentences.
Oh, okay.
So what does it matter?
Okay, this is what you do.
You kill somebody in Florida prison.
They're like that, right?
You stop somebody up.
They don't, I mean, if you already got a double life sentence,
what you're going to happen, you're going to get sent to either Santa Rosa or you'll get sent to Florida State Penitentiary.
And you'll go to closed management.
you'll be in closed management
three to five years
and then when you're done there
then you go back on the compound
like like
yeah there's nothing you do
like like that's it
like what are you going to do
I mean but now when you get people
in closed management
there's been because when I
when they sent them in closed management
I was like
man there's some dudes
have been back at seven eight nine years
and like that's a mind fuck
to be in a small one man cell
for you know 20 hours
a day. I mean, it's a
mind fog. Hey, you guys, I appreciate
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